A Faint Breeze of Change: Malaysia’s Relations with China
The clock may be ticking on Malaysia’s placid relations with China. While change could come in many ways, few of them are likely to appeal to Beijing.
Felix K. Chang, Foreign Policy Research Institute
The relationship between Malaysia and China is not without conflict, though an outside observer could be forgiven for not realizing it. That is because Malaysia has long kept its differences with China discreet. One point of contention has been their overlapping maritime claims in the South China Sea. There, despite repeated Chinese provocations—from large-scale fishing off Malaysian-claimed Luconia Shoals to harassing Malaysian energy exploration ships—Malaysia’s response to China has been muted.
Thus, it was not all that surprising that, in the late 2010s, then-Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak came to the defense of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) infrastructure projects in Malaysia, after they were criticized for their high costs and poor execution. In fact, he urged even closer ties with China and purchased warships for the Malaysian navy from it. While Najib managed to smooth over most problems dealing with China, he could not avoid them altogether, especially after an investigation of Malaysia’s sovereign-wealth fund, 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB), revealed that he had siphoned off money from BRI projects funded by Chinese loans. Tarred by the far-reaching scandal, Najib and his political party, the United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), which had won every national election in the last six decades, were swept from office in 2018.
More broadly, the 1MDB scandal raised questions about the motivations behind Malaysia’s policy of accommodation towards China. Such questions have lingered in the background, given that foreign policy decision-making in Malaysia has never been truly transparent. Decisions are generally made within a small coterie of senior officials. Little debate or discussion of policy options occurs in public view. That was certainly the case during the tenures of the last three prime ministers, including Mahathir Mohamad from 1981-2003, Abdullah Ahmad Badawi from 2003-2009, and Najib Razak from 2009-2018. And, by most indications so far, it seems not much will change during Mahathir’s second stint as prime minster today.
