Malaysia cancels projects financed by China

Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad has said that Malaysia is canceling multibillion-dollar China-financed projects. Mahathir said during the final day of a visit to Beijing on Tuesday that both Chinese President Xi Jinping and Premier Li Keqiang understood the reasons behind the cancellations and “accepted them,” AP reports. The projects comprise a $20 billion East Coast Rail Link and two energy pipelines worth $2.3 billion. They had been suspended pending renegotiation. Malaysia’s new government has called for drastic cuts to the projects’ ballooning cost, which it estimates at more than $22 billion. However, some of that money has already been paid and could be difficult to recoup.