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Anwar Ibrahim on navigating Malaysia through China-US tensions | Talking Post with Yonden Lhatoo
Exclusive | As China ties deepen, Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim says geopolitics is no zero-sum game
- In an exclusive interview, Malaysia’s PM talks territorial disputes, navigating US-China tensions and hopes for a Chinese economic rebound
“If they have compelling evidence to suggest that any company or any country is causing mischief, then all right. They should adduce evidence,” he said.
“But otherwise, we will not succumb to that sort of pressure. It is no longer neocolonialism or colonial rule. We are an independent nation.”
China ranked as Malaysia’s top trading partner for a 15th straight year in 2023, while the US has retained its spot as the Southeast Asian nation’s top investment partner over the same period.
Anwar said it made sense for Malaysia to ramp up ties with China, a country “willing to accommodate and listen” to his nation’s suggestions and concerns.
This included helping to build Malaysia’s digital economy, renewable energy and AI capacities, as well as greater Malaysian involvement in joint ventures, he said.
“They have been most receptive and they collaborate well, and they are frank and [make] no display of arrogance,” Anwar said.
“That’s why … [we are] seen to be a bit closer to China. The exchange between ministers, between party leaders, between students and researchers, [is] because of [China’s] response [to Malaysia’s engagements].”
Anwar conceded that Malaysia had in the past been saddled with “lopsided” Chinese deals, but said it was less to do with China and more an issue of “poor governance” by his predecessors.
But Anwar was confident of better deals moving forward, buoyed by his optimism that China would soon rebound despite its slower-than-expected post-pandemic recovery.
China’s gross domestic product rose 5.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2024 from a year earlier, but analysts have flagged an unbalanced recovery that is heavily reliant on manufacturing and exports – sectors that could be directly affected by US sanctions.
“It’s a huge country, like the United States. It has enormous capacity, and do not underestimate the ingenuity, the capacity of their leaders to shift [trajectory],” Anwar said.
“They know their priorities. And what, to me, is exciting [is] even if they don’t call themselves a Western democracy, they listen quite a bit and they adjust fast.”
Anwar also spoke of Malaysia’s long-standing South China Sea territorial dispute with Beijing, which has made an expansive historical claim over one of the world’s busiest waterways through which at least US$3 trillion in trade passes each year.
Anwar did not dispute that the overlapping claims were an issue between the two partners, but stressed that the West had an “obsession, the tendency to exaggerate the problem”.
“Do we have a problem [with China]? Yes. Have we encountered any serious clashes or problems? No,” he said.
“Do we then concede? No. But what I am appalled [by] is this idea that ‘Yes, we have a problem with China only.’”
“It is important to impress on the Philippines, on the Chinese, that we are here. We must be prepared and able to manage our own affairs,” he said, adding that Malaysia would push this point upon assuming the rotating chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations next year.
“I think even this issue is being exaggerated … we have to caution other partners, including the US, not to be seen as provocative, because it will affect us invariably,” Anwar said.