Interview-Forbes Asia “Malaysia Wrestles With Beijing’s One Belt One Road Bonanza”

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For China the economic and strategic benefit of these projects is not hard to glean, says Ngeow Chow Bing of the University of Malaya’s Institute of China Studies. By constructing deep-sea ports on both sides of the Malaysian peninsula and a railway–the ECRL–that runs between them, Beijing is effectively creating a means of alleviating its heavy reliance on imports through the narrow Strait of Malacca. “For the China side I think the intention is very clear: trying to create a land-bridge so they can bypass the Malacca Straits and Singapore,” Ngeow says.