Malaysia prepares to welcome Chinese Premier Li Qiang as countries mark 50 years of bilateral ties

Li is scheduled to visit Kuala Lumpur later this year to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two sides
China is Malaysia’s largest trading partner and PM Anwar Ibrahim last year visited Beijing, securing investments worth millions from the economic giant

Malaysia

Hadi Azmi

Published: 3:49pm, 30 Mar 2024

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Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has confirmed a visit later this year by Chinese Premier Li Qiang, as Beijing marks 50 years of ties with the strategically important Southeast Asian country, home to billions of dollars of real estate investments and crucial to China’s big dreams of regional connectivity.

Liu Jianchao, Minister of the International Department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, paid a “courtesy call” to Anwar on Friday as the pair discussed details of the event to be held in Kuala Lumpur in December, marking five decades since the two nations formally established relations.

Malaysia-China diplomatic ties were established in a joint communique between its second prime minister Tun Abdul Razak and premier Zhou Enlai on May 31, 1974, a major shift from the country’s previous staunchly anti-communist stance.

His visit opened the doors to other neighbouring countries to embrace China, with Thailand and Philippines normalising relations with Beijing in the following year.

Since then, China has grown to become Malaysia’s largest trading partner alongside the United States.

China imports billions of dollars worth of electronic equipment, integrated circuits, rubber and durian from the Southeast Asian nation.

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“We also agreed to strengthen economic cooperation, especially investment from China, improve connectivity in addition to continuing to unite in the field of education and the youth sector,” Anwar said in a Facebook post, following the meeting.

Relations between the two nations “will definitely continue to be strengthened for the well-being of the people of both friendly countries,” he added.

The dates of Li’s visit were not immediately clear.

But Malaysia’s foreign ministry is going big to mark the bilateral milestone that also includes a sequence of planned high-level visits, commemorative stamps, business forums and cultural performances.

Last March, Anwar made his inaugural visit to Beijing after being appointed prime minister, where he met President Xi Jinping and Premier Li as he attended the China-led Boao Forum for Asia, securing major investments and partnerships from the economic giant on his country’s key industrial projects.

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In Malaysia, Chinese real estate investors also remain highly sought after a long retreat since the pandemic and subsequent slowdown of the domestic economy.

The largest Chinese investment is in the US$100 billion Forest City in Johor, a new town launched to much fanfare in 2016 by debt-wracked Chinese developer Country Garden, which was meant to have sold tens of thousands of condo units to China’s middle-classes looking for overseas investments, just a stone’s throw from Singapore.

Instead, the 30-storey tower blocks remain largely unoccupied as banks seek their loans back just as Chinese investors go shy, leaving Country Garden sinking under billions of dollars of debt as China’s economy slows, and fewer buyers take up its developments at home and abroad.

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Beijing also sees Malaysia as integral to its Belt and Road Initiative to link southern China with Southeast Asia with a high-speed rail network, giving its people and businesses fast access to the peninsula.

On Wednesday, Malaysia’s government said it was open to extend a US$10 billion China-led rail project to its border with Thailand to boost economic ties between the Southeast Asian neighbours.

Part of China’s belt and road plan, the 665-kilometre (413-mile), 50.27 billion ringgit (US$10.63 billion) railway is on track to connect the east and west coasts of Peninsular Malaysia by the end of 2026.

The original rail link was first proposed in 2017 and is being constructed by the Malaysian unit of China Communications Construction Co Ltd. It was 60 per cent complete as of March, according to state news agency Bernama.