Malaysia’s influential former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad has clashed with one of the country’s powerful sultans in a growing dispute over a vast property project, the latest backlash against Chinese overseas investment.
In an echo of resistance in Australia to Chinese investment in farmland, critical infrastructure and housing, Mr Mahathir attacked the Rm170bn ($38bn) Forest City project, a 14 square kilometre housing development at the southern tip of Malaysia, as a “foreign enclave”.
The comments, made on Mr Mahathir’s personal blog and repeated in a speech to political supporters at the weekend, targeted Prime Minister Najib Razak over Chinese investment in Southeast Asia’s third-biggest economy.