US vs China-Russia Cold War for South China Sea geo-political dominance rearing an ugly head with Malaysian politics

 

US vs China-Russia Cold War for South China Sea geo-political dominance rearing an ugly head with Malaysian politics

Phew! 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) Malaysia is surely making hot global news headlines these days.

Never in the history of Malaysia has it been attracting such international media limelight - and mostly all for the wrong reasons.

No News Is Bad News is presenting this round-up of eight news highlights for the convenient reading pleasure of visitors and regular readers:

"SHOCK EXPOSE – CHINA TO FUND NAJIB’S CAMPAIGN IN GE-14? AMID UMNO SABRE-RATTLING ON GEORGE SOROS INTERVENTION, THE REAL ‘DIRTY SECRET’ IS OUT

Politics | November 1, 2016 by | 0 Comments


From October 31 (today) to November 6, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will be given the5-star treatment by Beijing, privilege not even U.S. President Barack Obama would enjoy. In fact, when Obama flew in to Hangzhou, China, for the G-20 Summit last month, China deliberately humiliated the U.S. president by denying him a staircase, forcing him to exit from “the ass of Air Force One“.

The last time Najib Razak flew to China for a similar 1-week visit was in 2014 – May 28 to June 2 – in conjunction with Kuala Lumpur-Beijing 40th diplomatic ties anniversary. The prime minister boasted how Beijing had given him the special treatment during that trip, simply because Beijing didn’t allow him to consume half-boiled eggs boiled in 3-minute.



As someone who always feels he’s somehow very special, Malaysians and the world can expect to hear another story from Najib on how well he is pampered by the Chinese. Ironically, this is the same man who had vowed to “bathe the keris (Malay dagger) with Chinese blood” back in October 1987 when he was then the UMNO Youth Chief.

Close to 30 years later today, Mr. Najib is a different man. He’s now the Prime Minister of Malaysia. He also has a new wife – Rosmah Mansor – whom he married in the same year he promised to kill all the Chinese in 1987, after he divorced his first wife Tengku Puteri Zainah Tengku Eskandar (“Kui Yie”). More importantly, he now loves China more than the mainland-Chinesethemselves.

Brunei, once the world’s richest kingdom where its Sultan Hassanah Bolkiah personal private collection has more than 600 Rolls-Royces, more than 450 Ferraris, and 134 Koenigseggs – the largest collection of that brand in the world – has succumbed to being a China’s ally after being offered attractive production-sharing options for the South China Sea’s deep-sea exploration.

Philippines, once the strongest ally of the U.S. in Southeast Asia, have declared its “separation”from superpower United States. President Rodrigo Duterte has pledged and realigned his government ideological flow towards China. After calling U.S. President Barack Obama a “son of a bitch” and told him to “go to hell”, the Philippines and China are now “blood brothers“.

China is today not only an economic superpower, but also an emerging military superpower.Nobody wants to become a follower of a wealthy boss who can’t offer protection. That’s why no country has ever pledged alliance to Japan despite the country being the biggest economic powerhouse in Asia before China snatches the throne.

Unlike Brunei and the Philippines who have allied themselves to China due to economic reasons, the same cannot be said about Malaysia. Brunei suffers due to low oil prices while the Philippines require new boost of investments from cash-rich China to develop its ailing infrastructure. Duterte brought home US$24 billion worth of funding and investment pledges from his 4-day visit to China.

Malaysia, under Najib administration, on the other hand is sucking up to China for one reason –to bailout and save highly-corrupt Najib Razak. His “Ponzi Scheme” disguised under 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Berhad) has accumulated debt of more than RM50 billion this year. Unlike the U.S., the Chinese was more than willing to rescue Najib, in exchange for strategic alliance.

This strategic alliance does not merely involve lip service. The Chinese aren’t stupid but brilliant businessmen. They put to practice “Money Talks, Bullshit Walks”. So when Najib asked for help, the China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) agreed to pay him RM9.83 billion (US$2.3 billion) in exchange for 100% stake of 1MDB power plants Edra Global Energy Bhd.

The following month in December, China Railway Engineering Corp (CREC) agreed to buy a 60% stake in a 1MDB property project called Bandar Malaysiafor RM7.41 billion (US$1.7 billion) in a joint venture with Iskandar Waterfront Holdings (IWH). Essentially, the Chinese own 16-plots of extremely valuable lands, supposedly belong to ethnic-Malay, in Malaysia.

When Brunei agreed to keep an elegant silent on the dispute territory in the South China Sea, they didn’t sell 100% stake of any of their national assets to the Chinese. When the Philippines agreed not to talk about their victory in denying China’s claim over its South China Sea, they didn’t sell 60% of valuable lands in Manila to the Chinese.

However, when Malaysia agreed not to talk about its claims in South China Sea, they sold 100% of power plants and 60% of 196.7-ha of valuable lands – all of which were vital national assets.In March, Minister Shahidan Kassim said that about 100 Chinese registered vessels were detected in the Luconia Shoals, one of the largest reefs in the South China Sea.

Amusingly, a few days later, Defence Minister Hishammuddin Hussein (cousin of Najib Razak) refuted those claims, suggesting that not only Najib administration was in confusion over national policy; they were also willing to close one eye over national security, and was ready to trade the country’s sovereignty in exchange for money.

Najib’s government also deliberately ignored reports of Malaysian Malay fishermen being bullied by men aboard Chinese Coast Guard vessels last year. A frustrated Malaysian minister was reportedly told Reuters – “When the Chinese entered Indonesia’s waters, they were immediately chased out. When the Chinese vessels entered our waters, nothing was done.”

If that was not serious enough, Najib plans to prove to Beijing that his administration is serious about shifting its alliance to China from the U.S. by purchasing at least 10 units of LMS (Littoral Mission Ships) at a cost of approximately RM300 million (US$71.5 million) each for a total of RM3 billion (US$715 million), when such ships could be purchased elsewhere.

Because the U.S.-Department of Justice refused to close one eye on Najib’s stepson Riza Aziz who had allegedly stolen money amounting to US$3.5 billion from 1MDB, the prime minister sulks and throws tantrum with plans to buy navy vessels from China, whose coast guard vessels have been harassing and bullying Malaysian fishermen in the first place.

Najib Razak will try to outdo Rodrigo Duterte, and proudly bring home more than US$24 billion worth of funding and investment secured by the Philippines president. But there’s one dirty secret Najib doesn’t want you to know about his deals. The deals will include “inflated figures” to fund his next 14th general election, on top of money to bailout his 1MDB’s RM50 billion debt.FINANCE TWITTER/Malaysia Chronicle"

"BRACE FOR 1MDB EXPLOSION IN THE U.S. – NAJIB & CO TO FIGHT TO KEEP ILLICIT MONEY: JHO LOW DARE NOT, BUT HIS DAD & BROTHER TO CHALLENGE US$3.5 BIL SEIZURE OF ‘STOLEN’ ASSETS

Politics | November 1, 2016 by | 0 Comments


Relatives of the financier accused by U.S. prosecutors of playing a central role in siphoning more than $3.5 billion from Malaysia’s state investment fund are fighting attempts to seize assets acquired with misappropriated funds.

Four family members of Low Taek Jho, also known as Jho Low, have initiated claims for properties the U.S. said he bought with money from the 1MDB fund, including a $100-million interest in EMI Music Publishing Group, a $35 million Bombardier jet, and a $200-million stake in the Park Lane Hotel in New York.

The family members, including Low’s brother and father, say they are beneficiaries of the family-owned trust that controls the assets and were forced to file claims themselves because the Swiss trustees have refused to take any action in the forfeiture lawsuits, according to filings Monday in Los Angeles federal court.

The trustees fear that any such involvement could potentially expose them to “criminal liability for participation in money laundering,” according to Low’s family.

Low himself isn’t filing any claims but he’s listed among the beneficiaries of the trusts together with his family members.

Representatives of the trustees, Rothschild Trust (Schweiz) AG and Kendris, didn’t immediately respond to e-mails outside regular business hours seeking comment on the court filings.

The Justice Department is seeking to seize $1 billion in assets bought with funds allegedly laundered through the U.S. banking system. Low has previously denied any wrongdoing and he isn’t a defendant in the in the civil forfeiture complaints.

Funds diverted from 1Malaysia Development Berhad were used for the personal benefit of public officials and their relatives and associates to purchase luxury real estate in the U.S., pay gambling expenses at Las Vegas casinos and acquire more than $200 million in artwork, the Justice Department said in a series of complaints filed in July.

The Malaysia fund is at the center of several international investigations into alleged corruption and money laundering by public officials. Prosecutors in at least four countries — Singapore, Switzerland, Luxembourg and the U.S. — are looking into money flows from the investment vehicle, which was established for national development.

BLOOMBERG/Malaysia Chronicle"

"NAJIB EATS HUMBLE PIE ON CHINESE TSUNAMI: WHAT MORE DO CHINESE WANT – NO NEED TO GO BACK TO ‘TONG SAN’, ‘BORN-AGAIN CHINESE’ NAJIB BRINGS CHINA TO MALAYSIA

Politics | November 1, 2016 by | 0 Comments


If the Cina does not want to go back to China then Najib will bring China to the Cina!

News at 5pm Monday 31st October 2016 : Najib visit to China today saw the signing of 20 over deals between Malaysia and China.

China Railway Corporation will be building the world biggest underground city of the world here.

Defence Ministry buying naval ships from China costing 3b. KL-S’pore High-Speed rail goes to China…not to mention the inflated RM60b rail project given to China.

The SRC is going to be sold to China too for RM4b to raise money to service her loan interest payments to EPF.

The Pendatang no need to go back to Tong San lah.. Najib has sold the country to China already.

– http://steadyaku-steadyaku-husseinhamid.blogspot.my/ Malaysia Chronicle"

"HUSNI DROPS 2ND BOMBSHELL: ‘I ASKED ABOUT 1MDB BECAUSE THERE WERE DISCREPANCIES – WHEN ARUL KANDA CAME TO MY OFFICE, I CHASED HIM OUT’
Politics | November 1, 2016 by | 0 Comments


SHAH ALAM: Datuk Seri Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah says his decision to resign from the Cabinet was God’s calling, and had nothing to do with 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB).

He recalled the time he was in Mecca and was allowed to perform his Umrah in peace. He was accorded a police escort despite it being crowded due to the peak season.

“It was like a message from God and that was when I decided that I was going to leave all of this,” he told reporters at a talk he gave on good governance on Monday.

Ahmad Husni, the former second finance minister, said that his resignation had nothing to do with 1MDB.

He stressed that he had stopped talking about 1MDB since December 2015.

(Ahmad Husni resigned from the Cabinet in the June reshuffle this year. He later quit his positions in Umno and Barisan Nasional.)

“Have you seen me release any statements on 1MDB since then? No.

“It is because that was when one by one the information was surfacing and I realised that there were discrepancies,” he said.

He stressed that the reason he was asking about 1MDB now was because the state-owned sovereign fund had not met its objectives.

“When they first formed it, they said they wanted strategic investment, so after 17 months I asked them again why 1MDB was formed.

“I was cynical with my questions to a point they couldn’t answer,” said the former Umno treasurer.

Ahmad Husni said claims that he had gone on a nationwide tour to explain 1MDB were not true.

“It wasn’t me who had gone around to Umno branches to explain 1MDB. It was (1MDB president) Arul Kanda (Kandasamy) who did it.

“Later, when he came to my office, I chased him out. I asked him to leave immediately,” he said to applause from the audience.


Husni has been called into Bukit Aman for questioning over his statements on 1MDB in Parliament. The meeting with the police has been postponed indefinitely.

Speaker Tan Sri Pandikar Amin Mulia had claimed that Husni had breached his ministerial oath by disclosing information he learned during his time as a minister.

Asked on this however, Husni just walked away while repeating “no,no,”.ANN/Malaysia Chronicle"

"THE CHINA ‘INVASION’ BEGINS: JACK MA TO HOLD ADVISORY POST IN MALAYSIA
Politics | November 1, 2016 by | 0 Comments


Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma may be offered an advisory post to help Malaysia develop its digital economy, the Treasury secretary-general Mohd Irwan Serigar Abdullah said today.

“We will discuss with him about bringing his ideas, and there’s also talk about appointing him to the digital councils in Malaysia, to get his ideas,” he told Malaysian media upon arrival in Beijing as part of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s delegation.

The digital economy is going to be “in thing” now and for the next 10-20 years, and Mohd Irwan said cooperation with China would benefit Malaysia in terms of human capital development and economic progress.

NST reported that Najib would meet with Ma as part of his official visit to China starting Monday.

The prime minister will have a roundtable meeting with 30 captains of industry from China, as well as deliver a keynote address at the Malaysia-China Business Forum on November 1.

Ma, the first mainland Chinese entrepreneur to appear on the cover of Forbes, will also speak at the forum.

The Alibaba Group is a family of successful Internet-based companies, and was the largest IPO in US history in 2014.

Jack Ma’s net worth is currently estimated at US$37.1 billion.

Najib will also launch a travel portal, Alitrip Malaysia Tourism Pavilion, in which Malaysian tourism destinations would be featured.

Alitrip — part of the Alibaba Group — is an e-commerce platform to help tourists, especially from China, to learn about new tourist destinations.MALAYSIA OUTLOOK/Malaysia Chronicle"

"ALTANTUYA-SCORPENE NIGHTMARE RETURNS TO HAUNT NAJIB: FRANCE CHARGES SECOND HIGH-RANKING OFFICIAL IN CORRUPTION-MURDER SCANDAL
Politics | November 1, 2016 by | 0 Comments


Another high-ranking French official, allegedly active in corrupt activities, has been indicted over the Scorpene submarine investigation in Paris.

In a joint statement sighted by Malaysiakini, Suaram executive director Sevan Doraisamy and Centre to Combat Corruption and Cronyism (C4) executive director Cynthia Gabriel said Dominique Castellan is the officer indicted over the submarine probe.

Castellan is the former CEO of DCN International (DCNI), a mega shipbuilder.

His indictment was linked to Contract C5 between DCNI and Thint Asia in 2000, and the consultancy contract between Thint Asia and Terasasi Sdn Bhd, said the NGOs.

The contract allegedly involved 30 million euro transferred to Terasasi Hong Kong in November 2002, the NGO activists noted.

This is allegedly in relation to Malaysia’s purchase of two Scorpene-class submarines in 2002, when Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, who was then the deputy prime minister, also helmed the defence ministry.

The RM3.7 billion (1.035 billion euro) deal was inked on June 5, 2002, between Malaysia and DCNI.

“This will put the French probe into the spotlight again,” Sevan and Cynthia said in their statement.

They said the notification of the indictment was issued by examining magistrate Roger LeLoire on March 1.

They noted that Castellan had denied signing on to the 30 million euro contract with Terasasi on behalf of DCNI.

Political analyst Abdul Razak Baginda (photo), a close ally of Najib, was allegedly the chief negotiator in the Scorpene submarine deal.

He was allegedly the beneficiary of Terasasi Hong Kong, in joint shareholding stakes with his father.

Razak Baginda had previously admitted to have received the 30 million euro but insisted it was a legitimate payment for consultancy work.

“The indictment of Castellan, now sheds new suspicion on this contract,” Sevan and Cynthia said.

On Dec 15 last year, Bernard Baiocco, former president of Thint Asia, became the first French official to be indicted for transnational active corruption and aiding in misappropriation of company assets issued by Le Loire.

Baiocco was accused of paying bribes to Razak Baginda, described as a foreign public official, despite France being bound by the 2000 OECD Convention.

Cynthia said a judicial complaint was filed in 2012, 10 years after the procurement of the two Scorpene submarines by Malaysia.

She had then represented Suaram when the judicial complaint was filed in Paris.

“These latest developments have confirmed long held fears that massive grand corruption had taken place.

“While the French probe continues with due diligence, we remain hopeful that the Malaysians involved will also be brought to book,” Gabriel added.

MACC urged to reopen submarine probe

Suaram and C4 have urged the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to reopen the case on the Scornene submarines investigation.

“We urge attorney-general Mohamed Apandi Ali not to block anymore the Mutual Legal Assistance needed to complete the transnational probe and punish those involved in dragging down the good name of the two countries,” the activists said.

Meanwhile, Baiocco’s lawyer, Jean-Yves Le Borgne, has accused the prosecutors of “legal acrobatics” in trying to claim the payments were used to bribe government officials.

However, in an article in the Financial Times in February, Le Borgne said his client had admitted the money was paid to Razak Baginda for lobbying works.

The lawyer reportedly confirmed that Najib and Razak Baginda were named in the judicial documents.

A Malaysian government spokesperson was quoted in the article as saying the allegations of wrongdoing against Najib in the Scorpene deal were “baseless smears for political gain”.

The spokesperson stressed that Najib had not benefited from any payments from the deal, nor has Najib been contacted by French investigators.MKINI/Malaysia Chronicle"

"WORLD DISORDER: ‘PARIAH’ NAJIB JOINS LIST OF GLOBAL TROUBLE-MAKERS WITH VOLATILE, EXTREMIST BRAND OF POLITICS

Politics | November 1, 2016 by | 0 Comments


UNITED NATIONS – You know it’s a bad deal when even the globalists trash it. But that’s exactly what’s happening to the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

Arch-globalist George Soros and the apparatchiks at the United Nations are blasting the international regulatory pact President Obama promises will write the rules of the global economy.

George Soros, schismatic pope in the High Church of Globalism, has a serious problem with the Trans-Pacific Partnership: the fact that it includes Malaysia, a slave-trading state ruled by a corrupt regime that persecutes Christians and breeds radical Islamist terrorists.

A memo from Soros, revealed courtesy of WikiLeaks, scorches Obama for his cozy relationship with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak.

It calls Najib “a poster boy for the 21st century kleptocracy” who has used “a racial supremacist ideology that is collapsing under the weight of corruption” to perpetuate himself in power.

According to the memo – and the facts – Malaysia is “a Malay-Islamic state in which Sunni Islam’s supremacy is indivisible from the political and legal supremacy of the Malay race,” a country in which “1 in 10 Muslims there had favorable views of ISIS and that a 53 percent majority were in favor of implementing Hudud, the Islamic penal code” mandated under Shariah.

CORRUPT, RACIST & BIGOTED

Malaysia has ripped God out of the Bible, confiscates Malay-language Bibles and uses concentration camps to force conversion to Islam.

“With a potent stew of corruption, disenchantment with secular government, an Islamic-racialist ideology, government funded Salafism and the worst TIP [Trafficking in Persons] and human smuggling situation in Southeast Asia, Malaysia is the regional source for the export of extreme ideas and of militants feared by neighboring Singapore and Indonesia,” the Soros memo declares.


It describes Obama’s pal Najib as “aligned with a conservative, Salafi-influenced Islam at home” who presides over “government Islamic agencies that promote Shariah law as the supreme law of the land, thus undermining the secular Constitution on which Malaysia was founded.”

“President Obama could not have been come across as more naïve about Najib’s doublespeak on Islam, nor chosen a less credible partner,” it concludes.

Soros accuses Obama of whitewashing Malaysia’s human-rights horrors to make sure the country is “shoe-horned” into the TPP.

Malaysia is notorious for human trafficking – a euphemism for slavery. “Malaysia has the worst human trafficking problem in Southeast Asia. It is massive, systemic and bound up with corruption,” the memo says.

But after Congress made slavery a disqualification for TPP, Obama’s State Department turned a blind eye to Malaysia’s violations. As a result, Soros claims, “The fight against human trafficking and corruption, and for political and economic reform, have all been set back.”

TPPA UNDER FIRE AT UN

Meanwhile, the TPP is under fire at Turtle Bay. The globalists at the United Nations say the transnational governance pact goes too far in eroding the national sovereignty of its member states.


Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, the U.N. secretary general’s special envoy, says the Trans-Pacific Partnership and its kin, the Canadian-EU Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), pose a threat to national sovereignty and “grave dangers to the enjoyment of human rights.”

Specifically, Zayas slammed the international investor state dispute settlement tribunals established under these pacts that would give unelected corporate lawyers unchallenged power to overturn national laws.

These tribunals could award foreign corporations unlimited sums, payable out of taxpayer’s pockets, for a loss of expected future profits. Their decisions are not subject to appeal and the amount they can award has no limit.

Zaya said he “deplores that the mere existence of investor-state dispute settlement” gives “undue power to corporations at the expense of national governments and human rights.”

This acolyte of globalism slams the tribunals for being “not independent, transparent, accountable, or even appealable,” and declared it “abnormal” for “an investor to demand a guarantee of profit” through “a parallel system of extrajudicial dispute resolution” that seeks to “usurp the function” of sovereign nations.

He decried the “secrecy” and “the culture of bullying and intimidation” that produced sovereignty-eating deals like the TPP.

As the Obama administration prepares to ram its toxic TPP through an unaccountable lame duck Congress, the U.N. expert called for “a referendum in each country concerned” before globalist compacts masquerading as “free trade” agreements are signed or ratified.

Both U.S. major parties have nominated candidates publicly opposed to the Trans-Pacific Partnership. The American people have held their referendum on TPP – and soundly rejected it.

Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell, are you listening?
http://www.wnd.com/ Malaysia Chronicle"


"CHINA TO POUR IN BILLIONS BUT HOW MUCH MORE WILL IT TAKE AWAY? BN MEDIA TRUMPET NAJIB’S GIVEAWAY DEALS BUT SILENT ON TERMS

Business, Politics | November 1, 2016 by | 0 Comments


CHINA will provide RM55bil in soft loans to Malaysia for the construction of the planned East Coast Rail Line (ECRL) that is estimated to cost a similar amount, according to Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai.

In an exclusive interview in Beijing with The Star yesterday, Liow said this will be one of the 16 government-to-government memoranda of understanding to be signed when Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak meets with Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang for bilateral talks today.

Apart from financing, the two countries will also sign an engineering-and-construction contract on the project.

This means China will carry out the detailed engineering and design of the ECRL, procure all materials and equipment, and deliver the facility to Malaysia.

“As far as I know, this is the biggest single deal Malaysia will be signing with China,” said Liow, who has worked very hard to obtain China’s investments in ports, aviation and railways since he took over the transport portfolio in June 2014.

On the terms of the soft loans to be given by China’s EXIM Bank, Liow said rates are very competitive and repayment is over 20 years.

“And in the first seven years Malaysia will not have to pay anything – interest and repayment.

“But for the construction contract to be awarded to government-owned China Construction Communications Company, there are terms that state it has to work with local partners,” he said.

Construction of the five-year project is scheduled to start next year.

The first phase of the 600km rail line will be from the Klang Valley to Kuantan, second from Kuantan to Kuala Terengganu, and third from Kuala Terengganu to Kota Baru and Tumpat.

Najib, in tabling Budget 2017 last month, had said the project would be launched in phases and would connect townships such as Port Klang, ITT (Integrated Transport Terminal) Gombak, Bentong, Mentakab, Kuantan, Kemaman, Kerteh, Kuala Terengganu and Kota Baru before ending in Tumpat.

“This rail project is going to bring a lot of economic development to the east coast (of the peninsula). It can unearth a lot of potential,” said Liow who is part of the Malaysian delegation, including Cabinet ministers, accompanying Najib on his four-day official visit to China which kicks off today.

Liow added that China has also pledged to pass on its rail technology to Malaysia, and this will help Malaysia in developing its rail system as a means of public transportation.

On Najib’s third official visit to China, Liow said: “The PM’s visit will not only strengthen bilateral relations but also enhance our economic growth, thereby making Malaysia a centre of growth in Asean.

“This visit will see a lot of ‘firsts’ between Malaysia and China. We are going to sign 16 G-to-G MoUs and more than 15 business-to-business MoUs.

“There will be so much economic activity … In fact, we are now enjoying the fruits of our close bilateral ties built up by former PM Tun Razak.”

Liow commended the late Tun Abdul Razak Hussein – Malaysia’s second prime minister and Najib’s father – for “his vision in 1974 when he decided to be the first Asean country to establish bilateral relations with China”.

“Now his son is taking the bilateral ties to new heights,” he added.

Apart from this major MoU on the ECRL, another major bilateral deal will be on defence.

“We are a small country but China is giving us a lot of assistance and support. This is good for Malaysians.

“This visit by PM is going to be very fruitful and rewarding for Malaysia,” he added.

China has often said it is grateful to Malaysia for being the first Asean country to extend its hands to China when the region was fearful of communism.

It has also expressed gratitude to Malaysian Chinese businesses, which invested in China and helped its economic development in the early 1980s when China just opened its doors to the world.ANN/Malaysia Chronicle"