Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The president of China, Xi Jinping, arrived in Malaysia as part of a tour of Southeast Asia, which is considered to deliver a personal message that Beijing is a more reliable commercial partner than the United States in the midst of a forceful commercial war with Washington.
XI arrived in the capital, Kuala Lumpur, on Tuesday night in what is his first visit to Malaysia since 2013. He flew from Vietnam, where he had signed dozens of commercial cooperation agreements in Hanoi especially, from artificial intelligence to rail development.
When landing, XI said that deepening the “high -level strategic cooperation” was good for the common interests of China and Malaysia, and good for peace, stability and prosperity in the region and the world, “according to the official news agency of Malaysia Bernama.
The tour of three countries of XI and its “message” that Beijing is the best friend of Southeast Asia that the truculent administration of the president of the United States, Donald Trump.
“This is a very significant visit. You can read many things,” said Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, former Malaysian ambassador to the United States and the Minister of Legal Affairs.
“China tells us that they are a reliable commercial partner, more than the United States. We never had trouble treating them,” Abdul Aziz told Al Jazeera.
“Under Prime Minister Anwar, Malaysia is getting close [to China]. It is a good thing, “he added, noting that” in the long run “, Washington's influence will be reduced.”
However, with China, commercial relations and diplomatic ties are strengthening and both countries are benefiting, said the former ambassador.
“We are very concentrated in China. That is our mentality,” he said.
Washington hit Malaysia with a 24 percent commercial tariff, accusing him of imposing a 47 percent tariff on US imports, a rate that Malaysian officials rejected.
Trump has more recently brought a 90 -day moratorium on American tariffs higher taxes to countries around the world. Instead, they face a 10 percent rate on goods exported to the US.
'Bypass America'
XI will be in Kuala Lumpur for three days, during which he will meet with King Sultan Ibrahim Ibni Iskandar de Malaysia and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim and will attend state banquets before heading to Cambodia on Thursday.
During his previous visit to Vietnam, XI urged Hanoi and China to “jointly oppose hegemonism, unilateralism and protectionism” and press for “economic globalization that is more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial for all,” said the official state news agency China Xinhua.
The Associated Press news agency quoted Trump by saying that China and Vietnam were trying to “discover, how we fornate the United States of America?”
XI's visit to Malaysia is partly an effort to “reinforce” the opinion that China can “offer to avoid the United States,” said James Chin, a professor of Asian studies at the University of Tasmania in Australia, through a different international order, such as the BRICS, the intergovernmental organization of 10 countries that includes Brazil, Russia, India and China, among others.
There is also the Regional Free Trade Agreement of the Integral Economic Association (RCEP), possibly the largest in the world, of which the 10 nations of ASEAN are members together with China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
“Basically, all this is an architect to build a new international order … Trump has given China the excuse to press more among countries around the world, especially developing countries,” Chin said.
“One of the things that [the Chinese] Being trying to do is configure a bilateral negotiation system where they can stop using US dollars. Any country that cotice with China can make an exchange of currencies [where] You pay in your own currency or exchange with the [Chinese] Renminbi, ”he added.
'We earn money' with China
Of the three countries that XI chose to visit this week, analysts said that Malaysia is considered to be the most important for China, given their considerable population of 32 million, its high -tech base and its current presidency of ASEAN. China is also the largest commercial partner of Malaysia since 2009, and in 2024, China-Malasia trade reached $ 212 billion.
“China expects to increase the exchange with Malaysia, which will compensate for the expected degradation of exports to the United States,” said Willy Wo-Lap Lam, a senior Chinese analyst at the Jamestown Foundation based in the United States and author of The Book, from confucing Xi Jinping.
“Politically, Malaysia has a lot of influence among the 10 states of the ASEAN,” Lam said. “Including how countries that have territorial disputes with China in the South China Sea should respond to Beijing's aggressive tactics to reinforce their wait.”
Alfred Muluan Wu, associate professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore, agreed, saying that Beijing also sees that Malaysia is within his traditional sphere of influence, regionally.
That includes economically in terms of Chinese investments and the strategy “China Plus One”, which involves Chinese companies that diversify their manufacturing bases and supply chains and establish plants outside China.
Beijing sees the establishment of commercial companies in Malaysia and other countries in Southeast Asia as a way of “spread” China's influence, Wu said.
Ei Sun Oh, main advisor to the Pacific Research Center of Malaysia, a group of experts, also believes that Xi's visit is about encouraging Kuala Lumpur to look more towards Beijing and “not take the American side”, which is something that can also adapt to Malaysia.
“Geopolitically, Malaysia could still play with the idea of having an adventure with China to deliberately antagonize the United States about very remote issues, such as the conflict of the Middle East,” OH said, referring to Malasian Muslim firmness for the Palestinian cause.
But, more fundamentally, Malaysia is more interested in doing good business and is “dying to get more investments from China and get greater access to the market to China.”
Abdul Aziz, former Malaysian ambassador to the United States, agreed.
“If we are approaching China, it is because we earn money,” with China, he said.
