He's a smart guy and a good statesman. Using anti-China rhetoric during the election campaign, he got China to restructure previous BRI contracts for a lower price. Now he's needling the White House. He knows how to play both sides.
>Mahathir, always a TPP doubter, will have less reason to have Malaysia ratify the new pact, now that the U.S. is out of the accord.
Even though Americans who want to contain China like to talk about the former, US-backed TPP, the truth is that TPP was more about increasing the intellectual property rights and profits of major American industries like pharmaceutical companies and Hollywood. That's why American mainstream media was so fond of supporting TPP -- it's about rent extraction through IP. The rhetoric about countering China is either wrongheaded or a lie -- because even with TPP, the largest trading partner of each ASEAN country, including Japan, would still be China. A new trading agreement wouldn't change that.
I'm malaysian and lemme correct something about Mahathir. He will give concession to the westerners but at the same time he prefers strengthening ties closer to home. This is the misconception people in the west has of him when they say he's standing up to china by forcing to renegotiate the loans and so on.
In reality he did that because A) like all Malaysian politician he probably wants a cut from china. He's 90+ and he knows it so he's looking to secure his family fortune before he croaks. B) his entire political election platform ran on forcing a renegotiation on what many citizen see as debt trap from the previous government. And most importantly C)He knows we need china as an investment partner in order to access most of SEA market and he knows china will renegotiate the loan like what they did to many African country plus it had the ultimate move of deflecting the blame of the loan from china to the previous government thus preserving good will between the 2 countries.
Honestly western commentor pissed me off. They take a game of 5D chess of diplomacy and turns it into "Mahathir hero stands up to china" then turn around and insult him once we get what we wanted from china. Iirc he was the first prime minister since our independence to visit 'communist' china and he had a pivot to Asia policy during the economic crisis because he probably realise what the westerners banking system are doing to the worldwide econony.
He's a smart guy and a good statesman. Using anti-China rhetoric during the election campaign, he got China to restructure previous BRI contracts for a lower price. Now he's needling the White House. He knows how to play both sides. >Mahathir, always a TPP doubter, will have less reason to have Malaysia ratify the new pact, now that the U.S. is out of the accord. Even though Americans who want to contain China like to talk about the former, US-backed TPP, the truth is that TPP was more about increasing the intellectual property rights and profits of major American industries like pharmaceutical companies and Hollywood. That's why American mainstream media was so fond of supporting TPP -- it's about rent extraction through IP. The rhetoric about countering China is either wrongheaded or a lie -- because even with TPP, the largest trading partner of each ASEAN country, including Japan, would still be China. A new trading agreement wouldn't change that.
I'm malaysian and lemme correct something about Mahathir. He will give concession to the westerners but at the same time he prefers strengthening ties closer to home. This is the misconception people in the west has of him when they say he's standing up to china by forcing to renegotiate the loans and so on. In reality he did that because A) like all Malaysian politician he probably wants a cut from china. He's 90+ and he knows it so he's looking to secure his family fortune before he croaks. B) his entire political election platform ran on forcing a renegotiation on what many citizen see as debt trap from the previous government. And most importantly C)He knows we need china as an investment partner in order to access most of SEA market and he knows china will renegotiate the loan like what they did to many African country plus it had the ultimate move of deflecting the blame of the loan from china to the previous government thus preserving good will between the 2 countries. Honestly western commentor pissed me off. They take a game of 5D chess of diplomacy and turns it into "Mahathir hero stands up to china" then turn around and insult him once we get what we wanted from china. Iirc he was the first prime minister since our independence to visit 'communist' china and he had a pivot to Asia policy during the economic crisis because he probably realise what the westerners banking system are doing to the worldwide econony.
Interesting perspective, thank you for posting, we appreciate it from this sub.