KUALA LUMPUR — In her relationship with Malaysia, be it bilateral or at the regional level, Beijing has always been willing to listen and suggest cooperative endeavours for all-round benefits, said Foreign Minister Datuk Anifah Aman. He said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had made a most successful visit to China earlier this year where he was warmly received.

Anifah said a number of new areas for cooperation were also identified which Malaysia was looking forward to jointly pursue. He said during the 1997-98 Asian financial crisis when the West turned its back on East Asia, China did not devalue the Renminbi to ensure countries in trouble did not get deeper in it and proposed swap arrangements for those with balance-of-payments difficulties.

“One can be cynical and describe all this as a policy of ensnarement, but in international life it is as important to look at the bottom line as it is in business,” he said when launching the book When China Rules The World: The Rise Of The Middle Kingdom and The End Of The Western World at the Institute of Diplomacy and Foreign Relations, here Tuesday.

Malaysia was the first country in the region to establish diplomatic relations with China in 1974. The book was written by Martin Jacques, an accomplished academic and a well-known columnist in Britain. Anifah said in this present global crisis, Beijing also had proposed various lines of cooperation with Asean, including offering a massive US$10 billion infrastructure fund for the region.

He described the book as one of the most important books on China to come out from the West. “It is even anti-Western in an intellectual way. It goes in deep on China, its great past and promosing future,” he said.