Southeast Asia Can Be More to China Than Just a Buyer, Malaysian Official Says

China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) must move beyond a traditional buyer-seller relationship to prevent the region from becoming merely a consumer market for Chinese goods, a senior Malaysian official said Tuesday at the Asia New Vision Forum Innovation Summit in Singapore.

The call highlights growing concerns among Southeast Asian nations over widening trade deficits and the competitive threat posed by China’s robust manufacturing exports, even as bilateral trade volumes hit record highs.