Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08KUALALUMPUR410
2008-05-21 03:53:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kuala Lumpur
Cable title:  

CHINESE DIPLOMATS COMMENT ON MALAYSIA RELATIONS

Tags:  PREL ETRD MARR CVIS CH MY 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO9231
PP RUEHCHI RUEHDT RUEHHM RUEHNH
DE RUEHKL #0410/01 1420353
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 210353Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY KUALA LUMPUR
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 1020
INFO RUCNASE/ASEAN MEMBER COLLECTIVE
RUEHBJ/AMEMBASSY BEIJING 2456
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUEKJCS/SECDEF WASHDC
RHHMUNA/USCINCPAC HONOLULU HI
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUALA LUMPUR 000410 

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MTS, EAP/CM, AND EAP/EP
STATE PASS TO USTR FOR WEISEL AND BELL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/20/2018
TAGS: PREL ETRD MARR CVIS CH MY
SUBJECT: CHINESE DIPLOMATS COMMENT ON MALAYSIA RELATIONS

Classified By: AMBASSADOR JAMES R. KEITH, REASON 1.4 (B AND D)

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KUALA LUMPUR 000410

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EAP/MTS, EAP/CM, AND EAP/EP
STATE PASS TO USTR FOR WEISEL AND BELL

E.O. 12958: DECL: 05/20/2018
TAGS: PREL ETRD MARR CVIS CH MY
SUBJECT: CHINESE DIPLOMATS COMMENT ON MALAYSIA RELATIONS

Classified By: AMBASSADOR JAMES R. KEITH, REASON 1.4 (B AND D)


1. (C) SUMMARY: Malaysia-China bilateral economic relations
are growing by leaps-and-bounds, with two way trade growing
by over 16 percent last year to $37 billion. Senior-level
official encounters have become frequent, especially with the
growth of the ASEAN plus 3 and the establishment of the East
Asia Summit. People-to-people exchanges have also mushroomed,
with 689,283 Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia in 2007 (up
57.8% from 2006). Chinese Embassy officials nevertheless did
not appear to be particularly well-informed about Malaysian
domestic politics, and they described a bilateral
relationship that continued to be burdened by Malay mistrust
of the PRC. We gathered from our conversations that the
Malaysians may seek the kind of "a la carte" relations with
the PRC that they have with the U.S., in which they
rigorously segment interests they perceive to have in common
with us from those areas in which they don't and react very
cautiously to the prospect of improving political relations
across-the-board. END SUMMARY.


2. (C) The DCM and Political Chief have recently had a number
of conversations with Chinese Embassy DCM Gu Jingqi and his
Political Counselor Chen Feng. DCM hosted both of them to
lunch on April 9, during which they indicated that their
bilateral political and military relations with Malaysia are
not growing as quickly as their economic ties.

On Malaysian Domestic Politics
--------------

3. (C) It does not appear that the Chinese Embassy has good
Malaysian contacts on domestic political developments outside
the Chinese community, despite the presence in the Embassy of
several Bahasa speaking officers, including Gu himself. Gu
admitted that he had gotten the March 8 election result
completely wrong, predicting to his ministry that BN would
win an absolute majority in Parliament. Gu repeatedly cited
conversations he had had with Singapore Embassy officials on
Malaysian domestic politics, as if they were final

authorities on the subject, but also noting that they also
got the election wrong. He reported that his embassy has no
contacts with Anwar Ibrahim or any Malaysian opposition
parties, adding that no one from his Embassy has ever visited
the PAS-dominated state of Kelantan. He seemed to find
comfort in the assertion that the Singaporeans had told him
that they never visited Kelantan either. (NOTE: Singaporeans
tell us that they visit the state often.)

On China-Malaysia Defense Relations
--------------

4. (C) Gu evinced frustration with the slow pace of
improvement in China-Malaysia defense relations. He declared
that not much had happened since the two countries had
concluded an agreement to increase military-to-military
exchanges in 2006, with only "several" Chinese officers now
attending the Malaysian Defense University. "Still," he
explained, "all decisions about even small defense-related
issues have to be made at very senior levels of the Malaysian
government, and the mid-level Malaysian officers don't trust
us just because we are Chinese." Gu said he thought the
Malaysia-U.S. defense relationship was much stronger and
volunteered that he was envious of the level of U.S. defense
sales to Malaysia. China had so far sold the Malaysians
almost nothing, he said.

On the Chinese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur
--------------
5.(C) To our surprise, Gu made a face when DCM asked how
Ambassador Cheng Yonghua was doing, and said only that
Cheng's wife had recently visited him and that he had taken
an extensive vacation for this reason. (NOTE: Cheng is a
career Japan-hand who speaks excellent Japanese but poor
English. We have seen him with an English-Chinese interpreter
in tow at some diplomatic functions.) Gu said his Embassy
had 30 diplomatic personnel, which is of medium size as
Chinese embassies go. In a late-2007 conversation with
PolCouns, Chinese PolCouns Chen Feng indicated that China is
focused foremost on economics and trade. He mentioned
substantial ethnic Chinese-Malaysian interest in investments
in Guangdong province, due in part to family ties to the
area. He noted healthy growth in bilateral trade, adding that
Chinese participation in the second Penang bridge project
represented one of China's largest overseas projects at this
time. Chen was unaware of any Chinese interest in the
proposed northern Malaysia pipeline and had little to say on
the Malacca Straits.

KUALA LUMP 00000410 002 OF 002




6. (C) The bilateral political agenda appeared secondary and
there were not many openings to work on political issues,
Chen said. In contrast to what Gu told us, Chen believed the
Malaysian government's fears of Mainland China's links to
ethnic Chinese-Malaysians appeared to have largely subsided
as memories faded of the Communist insurgency in Malaysia. He
pointed out last year's visit to China by the Malaysian
Chinese Association (MCA, the dominant ethnic Chinese
political party) president Ong Ka Ting as a positive sign of
Malaysia's reduced concerns in this area. (Note: Reporting in
a separate channel offers a different perspective. End Note.)


7. (C) Chen noted in passing that China and Malaysia had an
issue with Chinese fishing vessels in disputed waters in the
South China Sea, and that the Chinese Embassy had helped to
release Chinese fishermen detained in East Malaysia. A senior
official in Malaysia's Foreign Minister recently described
the encroachment of Chinese fishing vessels as a greater
problem, one that reflected Malaysian anxiety over China's
excessive maritime claims. China approached Malaysia to enter
into bilateral agreements for developing oil/gas blocks in
the South China Sea, but Malaysia remained wary because it
did not want to lend legitimacy to Chinese claims.

People-to-People Relations
--------------

8. (C) The Chinese Embassy in Kuala Lumpur has one of the
busiest consular sections among all of China's overseas
posts, according to Chen, due to a high rate of visa
issuances, but he did not have statistics on hand. Some
10,000 Chinese students currently study in Malaysia. Many of
the students use Malaysia as a springboard to continue
studies in the U.S., Australia or elsewhere. Only about 1,000
Malaysians study in China at this time, he said.

COMMENT
--------------

9. (C) Despite growing economic and people-to-people ties, it
appeared to us that the Chinese Embassy is somewhat
frustrated with the pace of growth in the political and
military spheres. Gu's remark that the ethnic Malay political
elite still doesn't trust the Chinese rings true, especially
in military affairs. Bio note: Gu Jingqi speaks good English,
in addition to Bahasa, and, still in his thirties, describes
himself in glowing terms as China's youngest DCM. He is
self-confident, one might say brash, though a third country
diplomatic colleague described him to DCM as "immature and
way over the top." He once invited Perm Five counterparts to
dinner and spent a good part of the evening urging the female
Russian First Secretary to down another shot of white
lightening. Waggish participants later agreed that she
out-drank him.


KEITH