Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak heads to China next week to build closer ties and seek investment, which may further dent US aims in Southeast Asia after a push by President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines to bolster China ties.

Najib is travelling to China with dozens of government leaders and business people. In a statement on Wednesday (Oct 26), he said Malaysia was committed to strengthening friendship with China and pushing ties to “new highs”.

“We will be signing many new agreements and understandings that will elevate the relationship between our two nations to even greater heights,” the prime minister said.

… “If it wields its cheque-book diplomacy shrewdly, it may either tie Malaysia’s hand on its dispute over the South China Sea, or even split ASEAN further on the South China Sea,” said Yang Razali Kassim, senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), of Nanyang Technology University in Singapore.