Richard Heydarian writes that the Malaysian prime minister, traditionally friendly with Beijing, may end some infrastructure projects if terms are not revised
Under Prime Minister Mohammad Mahathir’s second stint in power, Malaysia has begun to radically reassess its traditionally warm relations with China.
As one senior official told me during a recent visit to Kuala Lumpur, Chinese infrastructure projects could be axed amid concerns over economic viability, suffocating debt (US$250 billion), transparency of the contracts and domestic political pressure.
As a result, Malaysia, a top trading and investment partner of China, has surprisingly emerged as a new vortex of scepticism and resistance against Beijing’s growing influence in Southeast Asia.
Initially, many thought that Mahathir’s tough statements on Chinese investments were either election sloganeering to besmirch his China-friendly predecessor or part of a deliberate strategy to renegotiate large-scale infrastructure projects with Beijing for more favourable terms.
After all, the Malaysian prime minister has sung different tunes during his recent interviews, sometimes sounding more sceptical of China, at other times extending an olive branch.
What’s becoming increasingly clear, however, is that Malaysia’s new government is revisiting the whole development blueprint of its predecessor and is intent on reconfiguring overall relations with China.
Historically, Malaysia served as China’s most important economic partner in the region. During his earlier years in power, Mahathir, and later his successors, consciously cultivated stronger relations with Beijing as part of a broader strategy of economic development as well as non-alignment with the West.
As Mahathir told the South China Morning Post earlier this year, “I have always regarded China as a good neighbour, and also as a very big market for whatever it is that we produce.” He acknowledged the centrality of China to Malaysia as a “trading nation” and how economic interdependence means that “we can’t quarrel with such a big market”.
Yet China’s rapid rise in the past two decades has forced the Malaysian leader to revisit his earlier assumptions about relations with the Asian powerhouse.
