Inter-party Competition And The Najib Government's China Policy

In the post-financial crisis era,the South China Sea issue continued to heat up,and claimants,such as Philippine and Vietnam,have used their strengthened relations with the United States to balance China's growing regional influence.However,Malaysia has not adopted such a “threat counterbalance” strategy as one of the claimants.On the contrary,it has comprehensively strengthened its relations with China in the fields of economy,defense and humanities.This phenomenon has triggered academic thinking.Many scholars believed that the economic and trade relations between the two countries and a wide range of ethnic Chinese are the reasons for this phenomenon.On the basis of reviewing past explanations,this paper uses “inter-party competence” as a variable to explain the fact that the Najib government is more “pro-China” than other claimants.This article believes that in Malaysia's political environment of procedural democracy,the “new economic policy” of the National Front Government for 20 years has intensified the division of Malaysian society,triggered dissatisfaction among the non-Malays and the Malay middle class,and created conditions for a growing Malaysia's opposition.In the 2008 general election,“National Front” which has been in power for 51 years lost its absolute superiority of two-thirds seats in National Assembly.That not only meant the inter-party competence environment in Malaysia has changed,but reflecting the “National Front” government's authority crisis.In order to consolidate the political power,“National Front” needs to fundamentally improve the legitimacy of the regime.After 2008,China could offer help for Najib government.On one hand,a more friendly Sino-Malaysian relations is benefit for Malaysia to take the “Express” of China's economic development to accumulate the government's performance;on the other hand,the powerful Chinese culture could provide emotion support for winning the “key few” votes of the ethnic Chinese.Therefore,under the pressure of inter-party competence,Najib sustains the advantages of its alliance by a more friendly policy towards to China.