CHINA: LET’S HAVE TALKS ON PROJECT WOES
Problems with projects should be handled through friendly negotation, Beijing tells KL
CHINA on Tuesday said Malaysia should handle any problems it has with multibillion-dollar Chinese-backed infrastructure projects through talks, a day after Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said his government wants to cancel such deals.
China’s Foreign Ministry defended the projects in Malaysia, saying such deals had brought benefits to the two countries.
“Any problem arising in the cooperation should be handled through friendly negotiation” it said.
Dr Mahathir said he wanted to maintain good relations with China and welcomed its investment, so long as the projects benefited Malaysia.
But he took his toughest stance yet on Chinese-backed energy pipelines and the East Coast Rail Line project struck by former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
The projects were part of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative to build ports, railways and other trade-related infrastructure across Asia, often built by Chinese contractors and financed by loans from Chinese state banks.
Belt and Road projects in Thailand, Sri Lanka and other countries had run into complaints they were too costly, gave too little work to local companies or might facilitate embezzlement and other graft.
The Pakatan Harapan government had suspended work on the projects and called for drastic cuts to their ballooning cost, which it estimates at more than US$22 billion (RM90 billion).
Some of that money had been paid and could be difficult to recoup.
In an interview with AP on Monday, Dr Mahathir urged China to respect the free movement of ships in the South China Sea and reiterated his call for no warships to be based there.
China’s Foreign Ministry said Beijing has “always supported the freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea in accordance with international law”.
China and multiple Southeast Asian nations, including Malaysia, have competing claims on South China Sea islands and reefs, along with the rich fishing grounds and potential fossil fuel deposits around them.