Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

China’s multi-billion dollar “One Belt and Road” initiative has developed and “funded” corruption in Malaysia, The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has revealed on Friday, after carrying out an investigation.

The documents which were accused by the WSJ revealed Beijing’s designs of causing corruption in Malaysia.

An independent digital media company “SupChina” has called the WSJ report a “bombshell story” in its article titled “How China’s Belt and Road reportedly funded corruption in Malaysia”.

Referring to the WSJ’s report, quoting the investigation piece, SupChina said the minutes of a meeting of Najib Razak-led Malaysian government as well as the interviews with the “people in a position to know the events, among them a former official of Mr. Najib’s government” revealed the country’s overseas influence.

SupChina’s associate editor Lucan Niewenhuis, in an article, wrote: “Chinese officials told visiting Malaysians that China would use its influence to try to get the United States and other countries to drop their probes of allegations that allies of then-Prime Minister Najib Razak and other plundered the fund known as 1MBD.”

He wrote that the infrastructure projects which were funded by China were planned in Malaysia at “above market profitability” with excess funds which were created to “settle the 1MDB debt”.

A major project of China’s OBOR initiative the East Coast Rail Link was originally estimated to USD 7.25 billion, but later the project turned out into a USD 16 billion project, though Malaysia’s new Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad suspended it.

According to WSJ news reports, China’s state-owned assets supervision and administration commission Xiao Yaqing said the Chinese President Xi Jinping had “personally approved the infrastructure initiatives”.

However, according to Malaysiakini news portal, SupChina said both the Chinese embassy in Kuala Lumpur and Najib have denied the alleged allegations.

According to the FT reports, Malaysian finance minister Lim Guan Eng said, “We know that the price (of projects with China) is inflated, but whether there was such a deal, I have to check.”

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