CGTN published an article highlighting how visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping has drawn a new development blueprint for China-Malaysia ties for the next 50 years and how the two countries are jointly promoting a high-level strategic community with a shared future to bring more benefits to the two peoples and contribute to regional prosperity.
BEIJING, April 16, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Last year, China and Malaysia celebrated the 50th anniversary of their diplomatic relations. Drawing a new blueprint of bilateral ties for the next 50 years, visiting Chinese President Xi Jinping on Wednesday called on the two sides to jointly build a high-level strategic China-Malaysia community with a shared future.
To bring more benefits to the two peoples and contribute to regional prosperity, the Chinese president put forward a three-point proposal during his meeting with Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
Xi called on the two countries to adhere to strategic independence, forge development synergies, and deepen civilizational exchange and mutual learning.
High-quality cooperation
During their meeting, the two leaders both voiced opposition to indiscriminate tariffs, urging joint efforts to resist decoupling and supply chain disruptions with openness and cooperation.
Xi called for responding to the law of the jungle with Asian values of peace, cooperation, openness, and inclusiveness and responding to the unstable and uncertain world with a stable, certain Asia. In the same context, Anwar said that the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will not endorse any unilaterally imposed tariffs.
Expressing China's willingness to enhance high-quality bilateral cooperation, Xi said the two sides should strengthen cutting-edge cooperation in the digital economy, green economy, blue economy, and artificial intelligence and strengthen the integrated development of the industrial chain, supply chain, value chain, data chain and talent chain.
In his signed article published in Malaysian media outlets, Xi noted that in 2024, China-Malaysia trade reached $212 billion, up by nearly 1,000 times the level at the inception of bilateral diplomatic relations.
China has been Malaysia's largest trading partner for 16 consecutive years, while Malaysia remains China's second-largest trading partner and the largest source of imports within the ASEAN.
Malaysia was one of the earliest supporters of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The two countries signed a BRI memorandum of understanding in 2017 and have since reaped fruitful outcomes such as the "Two Countries, Twin Parks" program and the East Coast Rail Link.
After the meeting, Xi and Anwar witnessed the signing of over 30 bilateral cooperation deals spanning AI, infrastructure and agriculture, showcasing the two sides' strong commitments to enhancing high-quality cooperation.
Flourishing civilizational exchanges
Beyond trade and investment, China and Malaysia have also seen flourishing cultural exchange and tourism in recent years.
The year 2024 saw nearly 6 million mutual visits between the two countries, which exceeded the pre-COVID level, Xi noted in his article.
This has something to do with the mutual visa exemption policy. The two countries began a mutual visa exemption policy on December 1, 2023. Last June, China agreed to extend the visa exemption policy until the end of the year 2025, and to reciprocate, Malaysia would extend the visa exemption until the end of the year 2026.
Xi on Wednesday said the two sides should take the signing of the mutual visa exemption agreement as an opportunity to vigorously carry out tourism, youth, and local exchanges and deepen cooperation in culture, education, sports, film and media.
The two countries have carried out a new round of cooperative research on giant panda protection and also agreed to jointly apply for the inclusion of the "Lion Dance" project in UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Just last month, the Chinese movie "Ne Zha 2" premiered in Malaysia, where it promptly set new box office records for Chinese films in the market.
As many as 83.6 percent of Malaysian respondents in the latest CGTN poll expressed positive sentiments about China. Meanwhile, the poll also showed 83.8 percent of respondents expressing interest in visiting or studying in China.