Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – China’s President Xi Jinping has arrived in Malaysia as a part of a Southeast Asian tour which is seen as delivering a private message that Beijing is a extra dependable buying and selling companion than the US amid a bruising commerce struggle with Washington.
Xi arrived within the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Tuesday night in what’s his first go to to Malaysia since 2013. He flew in from Vietnam the place he had signed dozens of commerce cooperation agreements in Hanoi on every part from synthetic intelligence to rail improvement.
On touching down, Xi mentioned that deepening “high-level strategic cooperation” was good for the widespread pursuits of each China and Malaysia, and good for peace, stability and prosperity within the area and the world”, in line with the official Malaysian information company Bernama.
Xi’s three-country tour and his “message” that Beijing is Southeast Asia’s higher pal than the truculent administration of US President Donald Trump comes as many international locations within the 10-member Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) bloc are sad with their remedy after the US imposed big tariffs on international locations all over the world.
“This can be a very vital go to. You possibly can learn many issues into it,” mentioned Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, a former Malaysian ambassador to the US and minister of authorized affairs.
“China is telling us they’re a dependable buying and selling companion, greater than the US. We by no means had issues coping with them,” Abdul Aziz informed Al Jazeera.
“Below PM Anwar, Malaysia is getting very a lot nearer [to China]. It’s a superb factor,” he added, noting that “in the long term”, Washington’s “affect can be diminished”.
With China, nevertheless, commerce relations and diplomatic ties are getting stronger and each international locations are benefitting, the previous ambassador mentioned.
“We’re very targeted on China. That’s our mentality,” he mentioned.
Washington hit Malaysia with a 24 p.c commerce tariff, accusing it of imposing a 47 p.c tariff on US imports, a charge that Malaysian officers rejected.
Trump has extra just lately introduced in a 90-day moratorium on the best US tariffs imposed on international locations all over the world. As an alternative, they face a ten p.c tariff on items exported to the US. That’s aside from China, which has been hit with levies of 145 p.c on its items.
‘Bypass America’
Xi can be in Kuala Lumpur for 3 days, throughout which he’ll meet with Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim ibni Iskandar and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and attend state banquets earlier than heading to Cambodia on Thursday.
Throughout his earlier go to to Vietnam, Xi urged Hanoi and China to “collectively oppose hegemonism, unilateralism and protectionism” and pushed for “financial globalisation that’s extra open, inclusive, balanced and helpful to all,” the official Chinese language state information company Xinhua reported.
Trump was quoted by The Related Press information company as saying that China and Vietnam have been attempting “to determine, how will we screw the US of America?”.
Xi’s go to to Malaysia is partially an effort to “reinforce” the view that China can “provide to bypass America”, mentioned James Chin, professor of Asian research on the College of Tasmania in Australia, by way of a special worldwide order corresponding to BRICS – the 10-country intergovernmental organisation comprising Brazil, Russia, India and China, amongst others.
There’s additionally the Regional Complete Financial Partnership (RCEP) free commerce settlement – arguably the biggest on the earth – of which all 10 ASEAN nations are members together with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
“Principally, that is all architectured to construct a brand new worldwide order… Trump has given China the excuse to push tougher amongst international locations all over the world, particularly creating international locations,” Chin mentioned.
“One of many issues they [the Chinese] are attempting to do is to arrange a bilateral buying and selling system the place they’ll cease utilizing US {dollars}. Any nation that trades with China can do a foreign money swap [where] you pay in your individual foreign money or swap with the [Chinese] renminbi,” he added.
‘We generate income’ with China
Of the three international locations Xi selected to go to this week, analysts mentioned Malaysia is deemed to be a very powerful for China, given its sizeable 32 million inhabitants, its creating high-tech base and its present chairmanship of ASEAN. China can also be Malaysia’s largest buying and selling companion since 2009, and in 2024, China-Malaysia commerce reached $212bn.
“China hopes to jack up commerce with Malaysia, which is able to make up for the anticipated downgrading of exports to the US,” mentioned Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a senior China analyst with the US-based Jamestown Basis and creator of the e book, From Confucius to Xi Jinping.
“Politically, Malaysia has a variety of affect amongst all 10 ASEAN states,” Lam mentioned. “Together with how international locations which have territorial disputes with China within the South China Sea ought to reply to Beijing’s aggressive ways in bolstering its maintain over.”
Alfred Muluan Wu, affiliate professor on the Lee Kuan Yew Faculty of Public Coverage on the Nationwide College of Singapore, agreed, saying that Beijing additionally views Malaysia as being inside its conventional sphere of affect, regionally.
That features economically by way of Chinese language investments and the “China Plus One” technique, which includes Chinese language corporations diversifying their manufacturing bases and provide chains and establishing crops exterior of China.
Beijing sees the institution of enterprise enterprises in Malaysia and different Southeast Asian international locations as a means “to unfold” China’s affect, Wu mentioned.
Ei Solar Oh, principal adviser on the Pacific Analysis Heart of Malaysia, a suppose tank, additionally believes that Xi’s go to is about encouraging Kuala Lumpur to look extra in direction of Beijing and “not unduly take the US facet”, which is one thing that will swimsuit Malaysia, too.
“Geopolitically, Malaysia may nonetheless toy with the thought of getting a fling with China to intentionally antagonise the US over very distant points such because the Center Jap battle,” mentioned Oh, referring to Muslim-majority Malaysia’s staunch assist for the Palestinian trigger.
However, extra essentially, Malaysia is extra fascinated about doing good enterprise and is “dying to get some extra investments from China and acquire higher market entry to China”.
Abdul Aziz, the previous Malaysian ambassador to the US, agreed.
“If we’re coming nearer to China, it’s as a result of we generate income” with China, he mentioned.