The visit will be in conjunction with the 2nd ASEAN-Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit that will take place on 27 May. The sources say that Chinese premier Li Qiang will be a high-profile attendee as Beijing hopes to rally more allies in fighting back against US tariffs. Li’s visit will follow up on China president Xi’s own visit to Malaysia as well from last month.
One of the sources mentioned that trade is expected to be high on the agenda with regards to discussions during the summit. It is unclear if Li will also be in attendance for the ASEAN Summit itself, which will take place on 26 May in Malaysia as well.
Besides the summit, Malaysia itself is an important strategic trade player caught in the US-China trade war. So, China’s agenda here could be two-fold. For one, Malaysia is one of the more popular grounds for origin washing as noted here. And after China, Malaysia is the next biggest exporter of rare earth minerals to the US. The gap between the two is massive of course but at around 13% (rest of the world ex China combined is only 17%), it’s not an insignificant amount.
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