Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad said that he prefers to take sides with China rather than the United States if Malaysia is forced to take sides in the trade war. The leader was quoted by the South China Morning Post's report on Friday as he acknowledged that China is an economic power that offers opportunities despite being one the strong critics of Chinese investments in the country.
The 93-year-old leader said that Malaysia has to accept that China is close to the country and it is a huge market. He added that they want to benefit from China's growing wealth. The leader said that they will decide how to handle their relations with China independently. He also said during the interview with the South China Morning Post during his official visit to Manila that their decision depends on how the two conflicting nation behaves. He said that the United States is currently unpredictable as to the things that they do now.
He also said as he weighs the fears about China's growing power that China's attitude is to gain as much influence as possible but so far China doesn't seem to want to build an empire which guarantees that every nation who will take its side remains free.
The prime minister emphasized that China will make use of its economic strength to achieve what is to China the best objective, that they have to grow richer and richer, and this is the ambition of all countries.
He also said that with China's wealth they are going to be in the same position that the Western countries were in the past. The Malaysia leader said they are watching closely over the controversies that surround the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.
The United States, previously, called for the boycott of Huawei techs as they claim that it is used by the Chinese government in stealing trade and security data. Last year, the chief executive officer of Huawei was arrested in Canada because of the United States influence. Huawei is currently the world's leader in 5G network development. The company said that it is a desperate attempt to eliminate them from the industry since they pose a great threat to American tech.
Mahathir said that at the moment we have not found them a threat to our security. He added that they might become a threat but Malaysia cannot just follow actions taken by other countries because Chinese technology seems to be ahead of Western technology.
