Mahathir’s charm wins Beijing concessions

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad successfully walked a fine line during his visit to China this week.

He had the delicate task of delivering some bad news to his hosts — essentially his country’s renegotiation, or even withdrawal from China’s much heralded Belt and Road initiative negotiated by his predecessor, Najib Razak, which he rightly believes was a terrible deal.

However, he did not wish to overly antagonise his powerful northern neighbour especially as the chaotic foreign policies of the world’s other superpower, the United States, could no longer be relied upon.

His Government simply cannot afford the $A30 billion infrastructure deals already under way in Malaysia — projects funded by loans from China that his country will eventually have to repay.

It would appear from the outcome of his visit that he got most of what he wanted.

The costly projects will not go ahead — for the moment. The countries “agreed to let the details be considered by officials and the companies concerned”, essentially a shorthand for putting them on the backburner at least for the foreseeable future.

Mahathir was able to sweeten the situation with a series of minor agreements involving currency swaps, e-commerce and agricultural products.

The new Malaysian Prime Minister quite frankly told his hosts that any pressure on him to continue with the Belt and Road initiatives would eventually send his country into bankruptcy.

From Beijing’s perspective that would be a worse blow for the image of the Belt and Road and could easily scare off other possible clients.

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lu Kang stressed that the problem would be solved through “friendly negotiations”.

“I can tell you that this is an important consensus reached during this visit,” Lu said.

For all the charm and soothing words during his Beijing visit, Mahathir has almost certainly not changed his belief, spelled out during the election campaign, that Najib’s relationship with China was risking “a new colonialism”.

At 93, he is old enough to remember the old colonialism and his country’s struggle to free itself from British rule.

Mahathir is also passionate about lifting his country’s living standards to the point where it can follow its neighbour, Singapore, in proclaiming itself a first world nation — but he wants it done on his terms.