China’s paramount leader Xi Jinping arrived in Malaysia on April 15 for talks with key leaders, once again attempting to capitalize on the negative regional reaction to U.S. President Donald Trump’s punitive tariff regime.
Xi arrived in Malaysia yesterday evening from Vietnam, and was officially welcomed at the Istana Negara this morning by Malaysia’s King, Sultan Ibrahim, as well as Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Deputy Prime Ministers Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Fadillah Yusof, and other members of Anwar’s Cabinet. According to the AFP news agency, the Chinese leader “walked on a red carpet as he inspected an honor guard on the sprawling palace grounds as a Malaysian royal band played.”
Xi was scheduled to hold a meeting on Wednesday evening with Anwar to discuss bilateral cooperation, and to “exchange views on regional and international issues of mutual interest,” Malaysian state news agency Bernama reported. The two sides are also expected to sign a series of bilateral agreements.
Xi’s trip to Malaysia, his first since 2013, when the two nations upgraded their diplomatic relations to a comprehensive strategic partnership, is part of a regional tour that also involves stops in Vietnam and Cambodia.
On arrival in Kuala Lumpur, Xi said that this trip would “further deepen our traditional friendship, enhance political trust, advance cooperation in modernization, promote mutual learning between civilizations, and scale new heights in developing the China-Malaysia community with a shared future,” according to a statement released yesterday by the Chinese embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
Beneath this layer of verbiage, Xi’s message to Malaysia is much the same as the one he delivered in Hanoi: that China remains a predictable economic partner and a viable alternative to an increasingly mercurial and unpredictable United States. In Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff announcement on April 2, members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) were among the hardest hit. Malaysia was stuck with a 24 percent “reciprocal” tariff, lower than countries like Vietnam (46 percent) and Thailand (36 percent), but still enough to strain U.S. relations with Kuala Lumpur. Trump has since paused the imposition of the tariffs for 90 days, but a 10 percent baseline tariff remains in effect, and the U.S. president has said no country is “off the hook.”
As in Vietnam, Xi’s arrival was accompanied by the publication of an article by the Chinese leader in Chinese and local media outlets, which made this aim more or less explicit. Entitled “May the Ship of China-Malaysia Friendship Sail Toward an Even Brighter Future,” the article argued that the two nations “must uphold the multilateral trading system, keep global industrial and supply chains stable, and maintain an international environment of openness and cooperation.” It added that China will “work with Malaysia and other ASEAN countries to combat the undercurrents of geopolitical and camp-based confrontation, as well as the countercurrents of unilateralism and protectionism.”
In an interview with state-run Chinese broadcaster CGTN today, Anwar said that he concurred. “We stand with the Chinese government, for the well-being of our people and for our national economic interests, as well as the overall development and stability of our country,” the Malaysian leader said, according to the South China Morning Post.
The tariff chaos has only added to the unease in relations between the U.S. government and Anwar’s administration. As a longtime advocate of the Palestinian cause, the Malaysian leader has been among the most vocal global critics of Israel’s ruthless attacks on the Gaza Strip, and the seemingly unconditional U.S. support for Tel Aviv. Anwar has also continued to engage directly with members of the militant group Hamas, which began the current war when it made deadly incursions into southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
Since the outbreak of the current war, Anwar said that he has resisted U.S. pressure to get him to sever his ties with Hamas and moderate his criticisms of Israel, asserting that Malaysia “maintains its independent position.” Malaysia has also come out strongly against Trump’s proposal that Gaza be turned into a “Riviera in the Middle East,” a plan that strongly implies the forced removal of millions of Palestinians from the territory.
Tellingly, Anwar has not yet held a call with Trump since the latter took office in January.
Mohamed Nazri Abdul Aziz, a former Malaysian ambassador to the U.S., told Al Jazeera that Xi’s visit was “very significant.”
“China is telling us they are a reliable trading partner, more than the U.S.,” he said. “We never had problems dealing with them.”