Malay public opinion has always been sensitive to the existence of China. The Najib administration fell down in 2018. Some reasons were part of the time in the Malaysian community in the Malay community.If you are too close to China, it will be speculated into a case of selling Malaysia sovereignty. It is indeed another hidden variable in cooperation between Malaysia and China.
The head of Malaysia, Sultan Ibrahim, went to China on September 19 to start a four -day state visit.This is the second foreign visit after 10 years after the Malaysian country has been visited in China 10 years later.The 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Malaysia, the royal family of the Johor, which belongs to Erbrahim, has been interacting with China since the end of the 19th century. The friendship has gone through the baptism of the era of the Qing court, the Republic of China, and the New China.It is extraordinary.
Of course, Elahun's trip is only a symbolic official interview. The two countries have not promoted policy content, but the two countries have reached a certain degree of consensus in infrastructure construction, strategic partners and South China Sea issues.In this direction, the stability of the relationship between Malaysia and China, and the important information of the future cooperative relationship between Malaysia and China will deepen.The Singapore -Kuala Lumpur high -speed rail (HSR) project that the head of state has always been concerned about has also been positive for positive feedback from Chinese President Xi Jinping.Therefore, the results of Elahun's trip are indeed quite abundant.
In fact, the relationship between Malaysia and China has always been stable, and China has also played a pivotal position for Malaysia.For example, China has won the largest trading partner in Malaysia last year. The total bilateral trade reached 98.9 billion US dollars (about S $ 127.3 billion), accounting for 17.1%of the total global trade in Malaysia.The bilateral trade volume is still expanding. In the first quarter of this year, the total trade volume of the two countries created a revenue of US $ 49.5 billion, an increase of $ 1.3 billion in the first quarter of last year.As for China's investment, although it is relatively floating as a whole, it is also growing slowly, and it has gone through four stages of development.
Before 2013, China's investment in Malaysia accounted for only about 1%of the total inflow of foreign capital, which was small.This is the first stage.After Xi Jinping promoted the Belt and Road Initiative in September 2013, the inflow of Chinese foreign capital entered the second stage.At this stage, the percentage of Chinese -funded investment in the Malaysian investment market increased by multiple, and in 2017, it reached 9%of the historical high.However, China's economy began to slow down in 2018, and Beijing and Washington also started competition, which led to the shrinking investment of Chinese companies in Malaysia, and it was not slightly improved until the period of the crown disease.This is the third stage.
The end of the epidemic is the fourth stage.At this stage, Chinese capital began to rebound sharply, and in 2023, it reached a record high of 3.4 billion US dollars, and it became the largest source of investment in Malaysia.In the first half of this year, Malaysia approved China's investment in $ 2 billion, involving 66 investment projects.Although this investment allows China to temporarily rank after Austria and Singapore for the time being, it means the consensus of infrastructure cooperation with Xi Jinping when visiting China, and 14 memorandums signed by the Chinese State Council, Li Qiang, who visited Malaysia earlier.Chinese investment will continue to expand in the second half of the year.
In addition, after the head of the Malaysian head of state after visiting China, the Minister of Transport, the Minister of Transport, who was visiting the delegation at the time, went to China again two days after returning to China to attend the Nanning -Yajiaan Expo in China. Therefore, this year, MalaysiaThe amount of medium and bilateral trade is also optimistic that it will increase significantly.These two sets of data not only illustrate the close cooperative relationship between Malaysia and China, but also show that the two countries have become more and more deeper in economic and strategic relations.
There are challenges in Malaysia -China relations
Of course, the relationship between Malaysia and this largest economy in Asia, although showing a prosperous scene, is not at all challenges under the current turbulent world economy and political situation under the current turbulent world economy and political situation.
For example, there are still differences between the two sides in the South China Sea.Although the head of state Malaysia had proposed to Beijing to resolve the dispute with a constructive dialogue, Prime Minister Anhua had not only proposed to deal with it calmly once, but China and the Philippines have now fallen into a opposite attitude on the South China Sea issue.This tension will inevitably affect the Malaysian government.First, the Philippines is a member of the Asian Simpan, and Malaysia is about to serve as the chairman of the Asian Danan duty next year. At that time, Anwar must consider the overall interests of Yajia'an from the Philippines when dealing with the South China Sea issue.The dilemma of the side station.
Second, the islands and reefs, which are controversial in China and the Philippines, are close to Malaysia Sabah. In addition, the Philippine media had previously exposed Beijing to send diplomatic photos to Malaysia to protest its drilling operation in Sarawak.These two things have actually aroused the concerns of Malaysia's public opinion, especially the Malay community, which accounts for the largest population.Such public opinion will have a great impact on the support rate of the Anwar government.Although Malaysia has a consensus on Palestinian issues, Malaysian public opinion is actually more clear that the impact of South China Sea on Malaysia's sovereignty is even more direct.Moreover, the disclosure documents have clearly showed that the two countries cannot compromise in the sovereignty of the South China Sea, which can be solved by simply dialogue.
This situation allows the Anwar government to be alone under regional issues such as the opposition between China and the Philippines and the South China Sea dispute.As for the Xinlong high -speed rail that Malaysia's head of state is most concerned about, Malaysia is currently in a huge pressure on government bonds. Domestic political parties have also fallen into a religious route, and the government is still reluctant to give financial support and policy guarantee for the private contracting of the project. These are all these are all these. These are all these. These are all these. These are all these.The obstacles to the implementation of the project can be resolved by the Chinese capital that is willing to injection or contract.In addition, Malay public opinion has always been sensitive to the existence of China. The Najib administration fell down in 2018. There are some reasons for the hype of the Chinese threat theory in the Malay community in the Malay community at the time.
This threat theory still has a hype after six years. For example, during the campaign of Mado, Johor, there was a activity of the national League leader to visit the Johor government to visit China.The ruling party intends to learn and spread communist thoughts.Although this campaign strategy has not succeeded in the end, the National League still lost the re -election with a large -scale gap.However, if it is too close to China, it will be speculated to become a hidden variable in the cooperation between Malaysia and China.
The author is a commentator at Malaysia and Assistant Professor of Politics and News of Raman University
