CHINA is using the RM55 billion East Coast Rail Link project as a way to win support from Malaysia, the South China Morning Post reports today.

The report said at a time when Beijing’s  ties with other countries in Southeast Asia are strained, the project, which is being built with financing and contractors from China, was an expansion of China’s soft power in the region.

The 600km rail line will connect Wakaf Baru near the Thai border in Kelantan with Port Klang on the west coast via Kuantan.

The project is part of China’s grand One Belt, One Road infrastructure initiative, and is speculated to alter regional trade routes as it will connect the strategically vital Straits of Malacca with the South China Sea, when it is completed in 2024.

 The groundbreaking of the project on Wednesday comes after China scored a diplomatic victory over the weekend, when a joint communique issued by an Asean meeting to express concern about “extended construction” in the disputed South China Sea failed to win support from other members, accept for Vietnam.

SCMP reported that Beijing’s relations with Singapore had also deteriorated after the city state supported a international tribunal ruling last year that  invalidated China’s claims to sovereignty over most of the South China Sea.

And the city state is seen to be getting closer to the United States, prompting observers to speculate that Beijing would be keen to  ensure that Kuala Lumpur did not also pivot towards the US since Singapore would chair Asean next year, the report said.

The Straits of Malacca and Singapore’s control over it, is central to China’s strategic calculations, a naval expert at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law was quoted as saying.

 “At the moment, 70% of China’s oil and gas imports pass through the Straits of Malacca,” Ni Lexiong said.

“Because of that, Singapore has been able to control China’s commercial and military access through the strait, and has used this as leverage in its balancing act between China and the US.”

Another China academic, Xu Liping of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, was quoted as saying that Malaysia’s manoeuvrings were still unclear, as Putrajaya valued its ties with Beijing and Washington.  

“The security cooperation between China and Malaysia will continue to deepen and Malaysia has been supportive of China on multilateral occasions,” he said.

“But whether Malaysia will become the next Pakistan or Cambodia remains to be seen because Malaysia values its ties with the US as much as with China.” – August 11, 2017