‘Take sides’? Malaysia insists on conditional neutrality amid US-China tech rivalry

Malaysia is finding it increasingly difficult to stay neutral in the China-rivalry" class="entity-link entity-topic" data-entity-id="127596" data-entity-type="topic">US-China rivalry as the superpowers lock horns over trade, investment and the technology" class="entity-link entity-topic" data-entity-id="173778" data-entity-type="topic">security of advanced technology, according to a top government adviser.“They don’t make us take sides when it comes to foreign policy,” Tengku Zafrul Aziz, senior political adviser to Malaysia’s Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, told This Week in Asia. “They ask me to take sides when it comes to security of technology.”Malaysia’s solution was conditional neutrality, he said, backed by stronger regulations, closer scrutiny of sensitive technologies and assurances that neither side’s hardware or know-how would end up in the other’s hands.