We seek him there, we seek him everywhere. But, according to China’s ambassador to Malaysia, the most earnest efforts of his domestic authorities have failed to find fugitive criminal and Najib accomplice Jho Low. Have they checked in the casinos of Macau?

Of course what this denial means is that until Kuala Lumpur meets CPG requirements in Malaysia Jho Low will remain invisible, fatty though he is. There is  nothing new in this. Beijing is openly following a policy of military, political and commercial expansion in the whole of South East Asia, the Indian Ocean and Africa.  Presumably they feel that while western influence in those areas can be dismissed as colonialism or neo-coloniaism their own push for dominance on a global scale is no more than an attempt to bring the benefits of Maoism to the masses and the profits of those policies to themselves.

It appears that the East Coast railway project in Malaysia, in a revised form, is going ahead with CPG financial backing. This was, of course, the ruse employed by mega criminal Najib to get Chinese money to try to cover his thefts of 1MDB money. The extra money would have seemed a small price to pay in the eyes of Beijing to have the government of Malaysia under its complete control; but when that went belly up they were still prepared to fund the project for the new PH government.

Why? It is simple enough. To own a Prime Minister would be best but to have Malaysia indebted and so possibly manipulable is still worthwhile. Beijing is not in a hurry to establish a world empire. It sees itself as having plenty of time. And, unlike most other countries, it has no worries about elections or political competition domestically. There are none; or none where any opposition is allowed. How Najib would have liked to arrange to be bossku for life. Well China’s leader recently managed that for himself.

The lesson for Kuala Lumpur is that no matter how tasty a dish may seem it is foolish to enter the lion’s den to eat it