On June 13, Li Shimo, the initiator of the Beijing dialogue and chairman of the observer network, had in-depth exchanges with Malaysian Prime Minster Anwar Ibrahim discussing the overarching them of “Asia’s Renaissance”. Their lengthy conversation explores what role Asia and the Islamic world will play in a multipolar world as the unipolar era comes to an end. I know its possible you didn’t notice that the unipolar world led by the United States is shall we say, changing, shifting, unraveling in significant ways, but it is. And in that being the case, how can an awakened "Global South" be part of a united force responding to these changes across the globe?...And how can Malaysia thread the geopolitical needle to achieve a balance between major powers such as China and the US? Along the way, their conversation touches on the crises in Gaza and Ukraine, supply chain and dollar reserve currency concerns.
During the dialogue, Anwar also shared his views on the Gaza crisis, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, supply chain security, dollar hegemony and other issues, and affectionately recalled the difficult years of his political road.
At the beginning of his tenure in 2022, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim put forward the "Prosperous Malaysia" governing philosophy based on the six principles of "Sustainability, Prosperity, Innovation, Respect, Trust and Care", hoping to maintain social unity, improve people's living standards, improve the business environment, and lead Malaysia to a prosperous society. In the field of diplomacy, he attaches importance to relations with ASEAN and of course, relations with China, He has repeatedly stressed that Malaysia will not "choose sides" and of course that makes him unpopular with plenty of people with their agenda to contain China in various ways. This candid conversation reveals that the idea we are somehow supposed to be living in a U.S. led world, a U.S. led global order was being discussed even back in the 1990s.
As James Bradley noted in his outstanding book, The China Mirage, since the 1940s, the U.S. govt fell under the misguided spell of Chiang Kai Shek, believing that all of China somehow wanted to become more American and would gladly follow along with the American way, even in war. Well here we are decades later and it is clear the very fact that China had no interest whatsoever in such an arrangement yet has risen up in the world on its own terms has set us up for what some are concerned could even lead to WWIII.
Asia and China had no interest in being westernized and tackled their own country’s challenges their own way. Michael Schumann in his best selling book noted Asia’s Miracle and the World Bank published its report entitled The Miracle of East Asia in 1993.
The west, especially the United States fails to truly understand how Chinese, Indian, Malay and Muslim, the asian civilizations are intertwined through thousands of years of history much as we can say about the European continent. While the modern world faces changing paradigms, the Malaysian Prime Minister points out what I have discussed here on CounterPoint China many times…the foundation of Confucian values, morals and ethics including filial piety… These are deeply civilizational values which China’s President Xijinping often refers to in his vision for the east. It matches well with what the Malaysian Prime Minster calls “Madani” which embodies cultural roots across these ethnicities including the the fundamental need to live and work in peace. Sounds nice, right?
Moving toward a multipolar pluralistic world, China and Malaysia sees the Islamic world as one of the most important forces today. Let’s notice how it is so very different from the world of Chinese culture, yet as China expands its reach and impact around the world, do we see China trying to impose its Chinese culture on the Islamic world? Not at all.
Let me point out the obvious which is deeply disturbing. The vast majority of Muslims live in peace. Yet the extremists act in violence. The vast majority of Christians live in peace. This is absolutely and only the teachings of Jesus. Yet again, a small # of extremists, these are Zionist Christians and Zionist Israelis who don’t hesitate to cause our world our lives to live in fear of violence and war. And then when we look at Confucianism, new or old, we find no Confucian principles that accept or advocate violence.
The key takeaways I find are, first, that Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim recognizes that the colonial powers want very much to control the discourse but those colonial powers are no longer in charge. Even regarding the current Israeli Palestinian conflict in Gaza, he wonders how that discussion can start on October 7th and erase the 70 years of brutally disturbing history leading to it?
He also greatly supports the awakening of the Global South and recognizes the genuine dangers of the United States blocking industry access in technology and EVs for example, and in weaponizing its financial system, which is only encouraging many countries to quicken their desires toward dedollarization. Despite these pressures and concerns, PM Anwar says that it is easier now to remain neutral, to not give in to U.S. pressure to choose sides. It is also a normal course of relations amongst the countries all around the South China Sea to work together themselves to solve the problems they have.
They don’t need or want the United States involved. Malaysia’s position is that you negotiate within ASEAN, you negotiate between friends and there is no reason for outside forces to intervene.
And finally, two main points to wrap up this episode with on a very positive note, first Prime Minister Ibrahim points out that already 20% of Malaysia’s total trade with China is in their local currency, not dollars, with the highest amount of investment ever last year, with low inflation and high economic growth. With this backdrop, he says Malaysia will start the formal process of joining the BRICS alliance and second, that he has already made a formal call for the creation of the Asian Monetary Fund, to further solidify direct trade in local currency for Malaysia, China, as well as Thailand and Indonesia.
Like myself and many others paying attention to the ever changing world of geopolitical affairs, Prime Minster Anwar Ibrahim sees China not as a threat, not as a bully, but only as an important part of the world’s future success accepting the cultures and civilizations of every other country in the world.
Nice write up about my country's recent moves! The narratives around this from is very polarising, with commentors from the Global South supportive and the North saying we've aligned with the Devil 😆