According to the same senior official, the CCCC has engaged in corruption, predatory financing and environmentally destructive projects throughout Malaysia, Kenya, Tanzania, Sri Lanka, the Philippines and other countries.
Responding to the allegations and recent sanctions, a Chinese embassy official in Washington said, “The U.S. sanctions on relevant Chinese companies and personnel are completely unreasonable. It is an act of hegemony in serious violation of international law and basic norms governing international relations.”
Beijing’s new policy
A prescient example of Beijing’s new foreign policy is the attempted Chinese bailout of the Malaysian government fund 1MDB, following allegations by the U.S. and other countries that Malaysia’s then-Prime Minister Najib Razak and his associates used the fund to enrich themselves.
China offered to bail out 1MDB and use its diplomatic connections to convince the U.S. and other nations to halt the investigations. To make matters worse, leaked meeting documents indicate that Beijing offered to bug the homes and offices of Hong Kong reporters investigating the fund to find the source of the leak.
