China’s Premier Li Qiang received the Red carpet when he landed within the Southeast Asian country of Malaysia on Tuesday, the ultimate leg of a three-country regional tour.
During his first two postings – New Zealand and Australia – Li needed to navigate complex relationships with key trading partners, which were still marked by simmering disagreements.
But Li was travelling in friendlier terrain during his last visit. Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was far more open towards Beijing and China. In public statements and interviews, Anwar criticized a growing wave of “China phobia,” emphasized the country’s non-aligned status, called China’s President Xi Jinping an “outstanding” leader and even said Malaysia wants to hitch the international group of states BRICS before Li’s visit.
When Li left Malaysia on Thursday, Anwar called China a “true friend”.
During Li’s visit, China agreed to permit Imports of fresh Malaysian durian, a pointy, pungent fruit that’s becoming increasingly popular with Chinese consumers. Until now, Malaysia, one among the world’s largest durian producers, could only supply frozen durian and related products to China. Malaysia exported $253 million price of frozen durian products to China last 12 months.
China and Malaysia signed over a dozen pacts during Li’s time within the Southeast Asian country, including a brand new five-year agreement for trade and economic cooperation.
Li also attended the groundbreaking ceremony for a terminal of Malaysia’s East Coast Rail Link (ECRL) in Gombak, Selangor state. The ambitious ECRL project, which is backed by China, goals to attach the 2 coasts of Peninsular Malaysia. China’s premier suggested that Beijing is open for connections The ECRL also extends to other Chinese-funded railway projects in Laos and Thailand, further extending China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the country’s global infrastructure project, into the region.
Why are Malaysia and Anwar so nice to China?
China has been Malaysia’s largest trading partner for over a decade, meaning the Southeast Asian country must remain in Beijing’s good graces.
“If your economy is not in great shape and you need all this help, you can’t be picky,” says Ei Sun Oh, a senior fellow on the Singapore Institute of International Affairs.
Malaysia’s GDP grew by 3.7% in 2023, below the federal government’s goal of 4.0 to five.0%. The government attributed the weaker-than-expected performance to “weakness in external demand.” The Malaysian currency, the ringgit, has also weakened in recent months, which made imported goods costlier and contributed to inflation.
The economy is becoming an increasingly essential political concern for Anwar. Forty-three percent of Malaysians said they disapproved of the federal government’s handling of the economy, in comparison with 19 percent last 12 months, in response to a survey from November from Merdeka Center.
Anwar visited China twice last 12 months, notes Sheana Yue, a Singapore-based economist at Oxford Economics, and the prime minister won some “pretty big investment deals” with Chinese firms there.
Yue points to the expansion of visa-free travel between China and Malaysia as a tangible advantage of Li’s trip. Before the COVID pandemic, China was the Southeast Asian country’s third-largest source of holiday makers. But since China eased its quarantine restrictions in early 2023, the numbers haven’t recovered. Only 1.5 million Chinese visitors traveled to Malaysia in 2023, in comparison with 3.1 million in 2019.
Geopolitics can also play a job. Malaysia’s government has long pursued a non-alignment strategy that may sometimes be misconstrued as a pro-China stance, says Rahman Yaacob, a research fellow on the Lowy Institute’s Southeast Asia program. “Malaysia is trying to attract as many investment and trade partners as possible,” he says.
Anwar’s willingness to hitch BRICS may very well be an try and “boost Malaysia’s global standing,” said Wen Chong Cheah, an Asia analyst on the Economist Intelligence Unit.
Both Cheah and Oh consider that the war in Gaza could also promote Malaysia’s friendlier relations with China. The Malaysian population is essentially supportive of Palestine and has gone up to now as to boycott Western brands akin to Kentucky Fried Chicken And Starbucks to protest against US support for Israel.
Anwar also defends committed He argues that by maintaining relations he can assist broker peace within the region.
But Rahman doesn’t see the war in Gaza as the rationale for Anwar’s turn to China. Rather, the analyst from the Lowy Institute sees the prime minister’s approach as a path to a stable economy.
“Economic stability is necessary for the survival of any government,” he says. Anwar has experienced this first-hand, having served as Malaysia’s deputy prime minister throughout the Asian financial crisis. “He knows that economic difficulties lead to political and security instability,” Rahman says.
