Malaysia on April 12 restarted a stalled Chinese-sponsored rail construction project ahead of China’s Belt and Road Forum session scheduled to convene in Beijing on April 25-27. This is a big boost for China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which was dealt a severe setback when Malaysia cancelled the rail link project in July last year.
But Kuala Lumpur also managed to extract its pound of flesh as Malaysian negotiators forced China to reduce the price by nearly 30% while agreeing to a reduction of only 6% in the route length.