Dr M to hold talks with Chinese foreign minister

KUALA LUMPUR (July 27): Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will hold talks with Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Tuesday, South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported yesterday.

This will be the first by a top Chinese leader since the 93-year-old premier returned to power for a second time after Pakatan Harapan’s win in the May 9 general election.

The report said Malaysian government sources told “This Week in Asia” Wang’s visit — en route to meetings in Singapore with foreign ministers from Asean — will include courtesy calls with Dr Mahathir, Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, as well as a dinner with members of Malaysia’s Council of Eminent Persons (CEP).

This follows CEP chairman Tun Daim Zainuddin’s, a confidante of Dr Mahathir and a former finance minister, diplomatic trip to China last week, where he met with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Wang.

Dr Mahathir has said he will visit Beijing in August.

According to SCMP, observers have been scrutinising diplomatic activity between the two countries since the general election because of expectations that Dr Mahathir would diverge from the dovish approach towards Beijing taken by his defeated predecessor Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

The former prime minister had stepped up ties with Beijing during his last few years in power and was a top proponent of Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.

But since coming to power, Dr Mahathir has criticised the former leader for signing deals with Chinese companies that were lopsided.

Malaysia in July suspended Chinese-backed projects worth US$23 billion (RM93.38 billion). Among them is the US$20 billion East Coast Rail Link to be built by state-owned China Communications Construction Co.

SCMP reported Dr Mahathir last week said Daim’s talk with Li and Wang involved renegotiating loans and contracts with Chinese companies that were “too costly”.

Dr Mahathir had also indicated his preference for foreign direct investment in industries and technology rather than the real estate and infrastructure deals signed with Chinese firms by the previous administration.

Oh Ei Sun, a keen observer of Malaysia-China ties, was quoted as saying that the latest diplomatic exchanges indicated both sides were “ironing out” a recalibrated economic relationship that would not alter China’s status as Malaysia’s top trading partner.

“As Malaysia now has a new government with a very different perspective on how investment should be, it is crucial for both governments to adjust their expectations on economic cooperation,” Oh said in the report.

“Daim’s visit to Beijing and Wang Yi’s forthcoming visit to Malaysia should be viewed as efforts to iron out a new blueprint for the two countries’ already significant economic cooperation, in time for it to be formalised during Dr Mahathir’s visit to China next month,” he said.

“The fact that both countries treat this readjustment process speedily testifies to the resilience of their relationship,” he added.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 27, 2018.

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