China’s Xi Jinping arrives in Malaysia as Asean grapples with Trump tariff threats

Chinese President Xi Jinping has arrived in Malaysia for a three-day visit, with the Southeast Asian nation likely to seek to sell more electronics, palm oil and halal products into China, as the United States threatens its allies in the region with tariffs into its giant market.

Xi was greeted on the tarmac by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Tuesday evening and given a guard of honour from the Malaysian Armed Forces.

He is scheduled to have an audience with Malaysia’s King Sultan Ibrahim Iskandar on Wednesday morning, followed by a meeting with Anwar, and is expected to sign a raft of deals at a crucial time for Malaysian businesses scrambling for new markets as Washington fires out tariffs.

In a statement released by the Chinese embassy in Malaysia on his arrival, Xi said he would have in-depth discussions with Sultan Ibrahim and Anwar “on bilateral relations and international and regional issues of shared interest”.

“Both China and Malaysia are major developing countries and members of the Global South,” Xi said. “Deepening our high-level strategic cooperation is good for the common interests of both China and Malaysia, and good for peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world.”

The Malaysia visit – part of a three-nation tour of Southeast Asia – comes as China steps into the role of a stable regional leader on trade, a position vacated by the US under President Donald Trump, whose tariffs have sowed chaos, stunned exporters and questioned the direction of long-standing alliances with America.