KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia stands out in Southeast Asia for its overwhelming preference for China over the United States, a recent survey indicates.
According to the State of Southeast Asia 2024 survey report by Singaporean think tank Yusof Ishak Institute, a staggering 75.1% of Malaysian respondents, comprising 225 participants, expressed that they preferred aligning with the Asian superpower over the US.
This inclination towards China echoes to varying degrees in other Southeast Asian nations with Indonesia at 73.2%, Laos at 70.6%, Brunei at 70.1%, and Thailand at 52.2%.
The survey, which collected responses from 1,994 individuals aged 18 and above across 10 Southeast Asian countries, highlighted the prevalent sentiment regarding global power dynamics.
The respondents consisted of academia members, private sector representatives, civil society groups, media representatives, government officials, and regional or international organisation personnel from 10 Southeast Asian nations.
Is China superior to US?
As global superpowers, the US and China exert significant political influence and economic dominance worldwide. As a result, it leads to a nuanced relationship between the two.
The survey attributes Malaysia and other neighbouring countries’ preference for China to the substantial commercial and investment partnerships which bolstered their economic growth.
“Notably, Indonesia, Laos, and Malaysia, which have benefited significantly from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and robust trade and investment relations, witnessed a remarkable increase of more than 20 percentage points in their preference for China compared to 2023,” the survey reported.
Last year, only 38.9% of the respondents chose China, while 61.1% preferred the US in a similar survey.
Surprisingly, 50.5% of the Asean respondents from this survey switched sides to China this year, while 49.5% preferred the US as the prevailing choice if the region was compelled to pick a side with either one of the two big shots.
However, the Philippines (83.3%), Vietnam (79.0%), Singapore (61.5%), Myanmar (56.7%), and Cambodia (55.0%) continue to show their majority support for the US.
“Its backing from these countries has generally waned, except for the Philippines, which experienced a notable increase in confidence in the US, rising from 78.8% last year to an all-time high of 83.3% this year.
“This uptick follows the Philippines’ closer alliance with the US in addressing China’s aggression in the South China Sea,” the report said.
Earlier this week, the US, Japan, and the Philippines expressed their concern over China’s aggression in the South China Sea and “the militarisation of reclaimed features and unlawful maritime claims.”.
In a joint statement by the three countries after a meeting in Washington, they slammed “the dangerous and coercive use of Coast Guard and maritime militia vessels in the South China Sea, as well as efforts to disrupt other countries’ offshore resource exploitation.”
Besides US-China rivalry, the survey also highlights other ongoing global issues such as unemployment, climate change, the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Russia-Ukraine war, and global scam operations.
Malaysia’s stance on US-China rivalry
Last September, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim emphasised that Malaysia must be fiercely independent as a sovereign nation and should not be forced to choose sides in the escalated rivalry between the US and China.
Speaking at the Milken Institute Asia Summit 2023 in Singapore, Anwar said he wants Malaysia to maintain close relationships with both the US and China in accordance with the current Asean policy, Bernama reported.
“This idea that you have to be with China or the US…no, why should we suffer and be told what to do?
“I mean, we must be fiercely independent as an independent nation,” he said. – April 15, 2024