Asia looks to China with ‘admiration – and trepidation’: Malaysian minister Azmin Ali

Praise for Chinese leadership, but South China Sea dispute and Trump’s trade war top the list of concerns on second day of SCMP’s China Conference

Reading Time:3 minutes

A Chinese fleet in the South China Sea. Photo: AP

Published: 8:30pm, 11 Oct 2018Updated: 12:12am, 12 Oct 2018

Malaysia is looking to China to provide “global leadership” in the economic sphere and beyond, a top lieutenant to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said on Thursday, in the latest signal that bilateral ties are thriving after the brief uncertainties that followed the country’s shock election result in May.

Delivering the closing address at the South China Morning Post ’s China conference in Kuala Lumpur, economic affairs minister Azmin Ali’s optimistic tone about Beijing echoed a common refrain among other speakers at the forum that focused on the role Asia’s biggest economy is playing in Southeast Asia.

However, the South China Sea dispute between China and regional countries remained a potential flash point, speakers said. The conference also heard that stability in the region could be compromised if the US-China trade war intensified into a geopolitical conflict and countries were compelled to take sides in a cold war-esque scenario.

Azmin Ali, Malaysia’s economic affairs minister, says the country is looking to China to provide ‘global leadership’ in the economic sphere and beyond. Photo: K.Y. Cheng

The two-day forum – the Post’s first outside its Hong Kong base – was attended by 800 business leaders, diplomats and academics.

Azmin said the new Malaysian government that came to power after the May 9 general election would increasingly see China as a “country to learn from” as it revived a decades-old “Look East” foreign policy first promoted by Mahathir during his 1981-2003 stint in power.