Crouching Tiger, Ascending Dragon: The Trends and Dynamics of Malaysia-China Relations
This article examines the trends and dynamics of Malaysia-China relations, with emphasis on the post-Cold War era and beyond. More specifically, it explicates the interplay of external and domestic dynamics that have defined Malaysia’s China policy amid shifting regional strategic and domestic polit...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English English |
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Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia
2023
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/36261/1/ABSTRACT.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/36261/2/FULL%20TEXT.pdf |
| _version_ | 1825715282373509120 |
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| author | Lai, Yew Meng Maureen De Silva Wang Yunqi |
| author_facet | Lai, Yew Meng Maureen De Silva Wang Yunqi |
| author_sort | Lai, Yew Meng |
| collection | UMS |
| description | This article examines the trends and dynamics of Malaysia-China relations, with emphasis on the post-Cold War era and beyond. More specifically, it explicates the interplay of external and domestic dynamics that have defined Malaysia’s China policy amid shifting regional strategic and domestic political milieu. This article contends that Malaysia’s “hedging” policy vis-à-vis China has been primarily shaped by the country’s ruling-elite’s perceptions of its external conditions in the context of East Asia’s evolving power dynamics, tempered by their domestic political expediency. It further argues that despite the periodical recalibrations having given the impression of policy-shifts, they have not fundamentally altered Malaysia’s China policy-approach. Instead, continuity rather than change has been the hallmark, since the “structural conditionalities” driving and constraining Malaysia’s relations with China continue to be informed by Malaysian rulingelite’s domestic political considerations, as they strive to optimise as much the country’s external interests, as to consolidate their domestic legitimacy. The findings inform Putrajaya’s persistence on “light-hedging” as the optimal policyoption, when dealing with Beijing, to advance Malaysia’s national survival and interests as a “smaller-state”, amid the evolving regional geopolitics, shaped by power asymmetry, rivalry and uncertainty. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-06T03:24:32Z |
| format | Article |
| id | ums.eprints-36261 |
| institution | Universiti Malaysia Sabah |
| language | English English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-06T03:24:32Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | ums.eprints-362612023-08-02T01:54:22Z https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/36261/ Crouching Tiger, Ascending Dragon: The Trends and Dynamics of Malaysia-China Relations Lai, Yew Meng Maureen De Silva Wang Yunqi DS595.8-597.215 History DS701-799.9 China This article examines the trends and dynamics of Malaysia-China relations, with emphasis on the post-Cold War era and beyond. More specifically, it explicates the interplay of external and domestic dynamics that have defined Malaysia’s China policy amid shifting regional strategic and domestic political milieu. This article contends that Malaysia’s “hedging” policy vis-à-vis China has been primarily shaped by the country’s ruling-elite’s perceptions of its external conditions in the context of East Asia’s evolving power dynamics, tempered by their domestic political expediency. It further argues that despite the periodical recalibrations having given the impression of policy-shifts, they have not fundamentally altered Malaysia’s China policy-approach. Instead, continuity rather than change has been the hallmark, since the “structural conditionalities” driving and constraining Malaysia’s relations with China continue to be informed by Malaysian rulingelite’s domestic political considerations, as they strive to optimise as much the country’s external interests, as to consolidate their domestic legitimacy. The findings inform Putrajaya’s persistence on “light-hedging” as the optimal policyoption, when dealing with Beijing, to advance Malaysia’s national survival and interests as a “smaller-state”, amid the evolving regional geopolitics, shaped by power asymmetry, rivalry and uncertainty. Penerbit Universiti Sains Malaysia 2023 Article NonPeerReviewed text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/36261/1/ABSTRACT.pdf text en https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/36261/2/FULL%20TEXT.pdf Lai, Yew Meng and Maureen De Silva and Wang Yunqi (2023) Crouching Tiger, Ascending Dragon: The Trends and Dynamics of Malaysia-China Relations. Kajian Malaysia, 41 (1). pp. 85-108. ISSN 0127-4082 https://doi.org/10.21315/km2023.41.1.5 |
| spellingShingle | DS595.8-597.215 History DS701-799.9 China Lai, Yew Meng Maureen De Silva Wang Yunqi Crouching Tiger, Ascending Dragon: The Trends and Dynamics of Malaysia-China Relations |
| title | Crouching Tiger, Ascending Dragon: The Trends and Dynamics of Malaysia-China Relations |
| title_full | Crouching Tiger, Ascending Dragon: The Trends and Dynamics of Malaysia-China Relations |
| title_fullStr | Crouching Tiger, Ascending Dragon: The Trends and Dynamics of Malaysia-China Relations |
| title_full_unstemmed | Crouching Tiger, Ascending Dragon: The Trends and Dynamics of Malaysia-China Relations |
| title_short | Crouching Tiger, Ascending Dragon: The Trends and Dynamics of Malaysia-China Relations |
| title_sort | crouching tiger ascending dragon the trends and dynamics of malaysia china relations |
| topic | DS595.8-597.215 History DS701-799.9 China |
| url | https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/36261/1/ABSTRACT.pdf https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/36261/2/FULL%20TEXT.pdf |
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