Malaysia

Malaysia Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim made his second visit to China in September to attend the 20th China-ASEAN Expo just months after his last visit in March. While Anwar has repeatedly insisted that Malaysia’s relations with the US and other Western countries remain strong, his active engagement of China draws questions over Malaysia’s emphasis in foreign policy.

In India’s view, a new “standard map” unveiled just before India’s hosting of the G20 summit in New Delhi is a deliberate initiative by China to express its discontent with India on the border issue. With bilateral ties between India and China already in bad shape, the new map further complicates the relationship. Researcher Rishi Gupta explains.

If languages and cultural practices are disappearing fast in the indigenous communities of Borneo to the Chinese community in Penang and elsewhere, can digital technology and AI play a bigger role to document pieces of our identity that can be preserved beyond time and space?

Given the "civilisational lens" through which Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim views Malaysia-China relations, Anwar probably agrees more with the pluralistic vision contained in China’s Global Civilizational Initiative than the binary vision of “democracy versus autocracy” popular in Washington today.

An Asian Monetary Fund was first mooted by Japan during the Asian Financial Crisis in the late 1990s, but did not quite take off then. Now, with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim resurfacing the proposal during his recent trip to China, is the prospect of an AMF more likely today than it was 26 years ago?

Caixin sat down for an exclusive interview with Malaysia’s new Minister of International Trade and Industry Tengku Zafrul Aziz on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, in January. He spoke about Malaysia's and ASEAN's relations with China, and his thoughts on regional and global trade.

While it is still unclear if the Anwar Ibrahim administration has a clear China policy in place, the general trajectory is a positive posture towards China. Even so, the relationship can be expanded and strengthened beyond economic numbers to channelling the benefits of cooperation to local SMEs, and broadening cooperation to areas where the prime minister has shown great personal interest, such as inter-civilisational dialogue.

Malaysian researcher Liew Wui Chern explains why geographical dictates and long-held principles mean that Malaysia’s foreign policy is unlikely to change drastically under Anwar, at least for now.

While it faces stiff competition from countries in the region such as Vietnam, Malaysia stands in good stead to win high-quality investments from Taiwan.