KUALA LUMPUR, July 18 — The new government has adopted a more diplomatic stance towards China’s continued claim over Malaysian territorial waters as it was now more dependent on the superpower for trade after Covid-19 wreaked havoc on the world economy, said analysts.
“The government is completely downplaying any Chinese assertiveness. They need the investment, trade, and now Covid-19 assistance,” Zachary Abuza, a Southeast Asian security expert at the Washington-based National War College, was quoted as saying. This led to a scathing response from former foreign minister Datuk Seri Anifah Aman who said Hishammuddin was either “in denial or ignorant” about the encroachment.According to Institute of Strategic and International Studies senior analyst Shahriman Lockman, Malaysia’s tact was not recognition of China’s claim on its territory and he noted that it has consistently contested such claims, including through a note verbale to the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf.
Shahriman also suggested that Vietnam, yet another contesting country, was confrontational towards China in the issue because the two countries have had bloody conflicts in the past. China has also sent naval vessels to the area when other claimants had only deployed civilian craft, prompting rival superpower the US to depoly a carrier fleet to the area for military exercises seen as a warning to China.