Is China’s belt and road colonialism? Mahathir: not at all
Malaysian prime minister denies his comments on free trade during a visit to Beijing were a dig at its rising economic influence – but sticks to his objections against Forest City and his description of Jews as ‘hook-nosed’
Was Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad’s recent warning of a “new version of colonialism” rising in Asia a veiled attack at China?
Far from it, the 93-year-old said in a wide-ranging BBC HardTalk interview that aired on Tuesday.
Mahathir made the comment after Li, asked about Beijing’s ongoing trade war with the United States, turned to the elder statesman and asked if Malaysia supported free trade.
[Chinese investors are] still coming, they still want to invest in Malaysia
Mahathir replied that “free trade should also be fair trade”, adding there should not be a situation where “there is a new version of colonialism happening because poor countries are unable to compete with rich countries”.
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In the interview in London with the BBC’s Zeinab Badawi, the Malaysian leader said this was an inaccurate portrayal of his comments.
Asked whether he had said the Chinese were engaging in “debt colonialism”, he replied: “I did not accuse the Chinese.
“I merely said that there were other forms of colonialism and one of them was neocolonialism, [a term] which was coined by President Sukarno,” he said, referring to Indonesia’s late independence leader.
Sukarno was one of the foremost proponents of the Non-Aligned Movement set up in 1961 as an alternative for nations that did not want to fall under the diplomatic umbrellas of either the United States or the former Soviet Union during the cold war.
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“They’ve seen me, many of them have seen me recently and they don’t seem to be in any way angry with me because of what I said regarding colonialism,” the prime minister said.
Asked again if he saw the belt and road plan as a new form of colonialism, Mahathir said “not at all” but he objected to Chinese money being used to build cities in foreign countries.
The interview with the BBC capped a hectic week for Mahathir, who addressed the United Nations General Assembly last week.
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In the UN speech, Mahathir blasted Israel for its occupation of Palestinian land, and showed little remorse when asked in the BBC interview about his past reputation as an anti-Semite.
“If you are going to be truthful, the problem in the Middle East began with the creation of Israel. That is the truth. But I cannot say that,” he said.
Asked why he had referred Jews as “hook-nosed” in his 1970 book The Malay Dilemma, Mahathir said: “They are hook-nosed. Many people called the Malays fat-nosed. We didn’t object, we didn’t go to war for that.”
