Should Malaysia Choose China Over America

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Chinese President Xi Jinpeng will be visiting Malaysia for 3 days starting on April 15th.
President Xi, to those who don’t know, almost never visits any country – it is usually the leaders of other countries that have to visit him in China, not the other way around.
Anwar himself has visited China multiple times since he became prime minister 2 years ago. In return, President Xi has never even visited Malaysia once.
In politics, the fact that President Xi has never visited Anwar while Anwar has visited President Xi multiple times, is a sign that Anwar might be the captain of the ship called Malaysia, but president Xi is the admiral of the fleet.
That president Xi is visiting Malaysia – as well as other SEA nations like Cambodia and Vietnam, is not a coincidence.
It is likely the direct result of the tariff war that Trump has launched against China.
Trump might have hit the entire world with tariffs, but the chief target of these tariffs is China.
Trump likely only hit the rest of the world with Tariffs to make all of us abandon China and return to the fold of the Americans. Once enough of the world chooses America, Trump is almost certainly going to use their support to put China in its place.
The place that Trump wants China to be is one where no one, including China, sees China as a possible alternative to America.
That President Xi is now “mencemar duli” by visiting smaller countries like Malaysia is likely a sign that China is going to to react to the American attempt by getting as many countries that it can get to side with China as China either defends itself against America or goes on the offensive against America to topple America’s from the top position.
That Malaysia is only sending Trade Minister Tengku Zafrul to meet with the Americans over the tariffs while Anwar himself is staying back in Malaysia to welcome President Xi, will likely be taken as a sign that Malaysia is more inclined to take sides with China rather than America.
Is it a good idea for Malaysia to send such a signal?
Yes. Although I am not sure whether it is a good idea, I think this is the best possible signal that we can send under the circumstances.
When two giants are fighting, the worst thing we can do is take no one’s side. India maybe can afford to not take sides, because it is big enough to not take sides, but a small country Malaysia cannot afford to do so. If we take no one’s side, we will be crushed by both while receiving support from neither.
The question however, is which side should we take?
The answer obviously is the winning side, but the problem is that we are not yet sure which is going to be the winning side in the impending battle between America and China.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy
Source : NewsWav
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