Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir bin Mohamad is standing up to China, at home and at sea. The South China Sea, that is. That raises geopolitical risks for financial markets in the region. At home, Malaysia has dared to do something Sri Lanka, Pakistan, The Maldives and the Philippines didn’t: canceling or re-negotiating inflated Chinese projects. This week, Malaysia seized more than 1 billion ringgit ($243.5 million) from a bank account of state-owned China Petroleum Pipeline Engineering (CPP) over failed pipeline projects, according to a Reuters report. And back in April, China agreed to trim the cost of East Coast Rail Link project by one-third.
