The temperature between the United States and China has not reached boiling point, but it is rising, and the world must do all it can to cool it, said Defence Minister Dr Ng Eng Hen.
China’s Snub of US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin Is Our Problem, and Beijing’s
Commentary
U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has repeatedly requested, since Biden’s presidency, a meeting with China’s top military officer, only to be rebuffed, according to information revealed by U.S. defense officials in a May 21 Financial Times report. Beijing’s snub of Mr. Austin is being interpreted by some, optimistically, as a petty bureaucratic rivalry. However, the dispute indicates dangerously self-defeating behavior on the part of both Beijing and Washington D.C., just as military tensions are increasing between the United States and allies on one side, and China and its allies, on the other.
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Malaysia-China defence ties cool amid political changes and South China Sea tensions China was commissioned to build four littoral mission ships for Malaysia. Photo: Royal Malaysian Navy/Facebook
In 2017, Malaysia and China s defence relationship peaked after former prime minister Najib Razak renewed a memorandum of understanding on defence cooperation during a trip to Beijing.
The October 2016 visit came months after a special arbitral tribunal ruled in favour of the Philippines in its dispute with Beijing over its South China Sea claims, and the Najib government seemed determined to not let the landmark case affect its pursuit of closer ties with China.