Now that the festive season is over and politicians and bureaucrats return to work is anyone in Washington or London going to notice that Beijing has bought Malaysia, and with it control of the Malacca Strait? Not important you think? Then you don’t know much about the volume of trade that passes through daily or about the huge commercial assets of British companies long established in Malaysia and Singapore.

Those that do know the facts seem strangely unalarmed by this latest Chinese Government push westward. Malaysia today, India tomorrow and guess where the day after. The oilfields of the Middle East might just seem attractive to a power with no domestic oil and a ravening thirst for the black stuff. Admittedly the Malaysian oilfields will make a start but they will not be nearly enough.

The really curious thing about all this is how easily it could be stopped in its tracks if tackled now. Everything about this new west looking Chinese offensive turns on the continuance in power of one of the twenty first century’s biggest criminals, Malaysian PM Najib Razak. The whole deal with Beijing results from his increasingly stupid and ineffective attempts to stay out of jail for having committed mega thefts of his own country’s public funds.

Exposed by the US Department of Justice as the mega criminal he is, he has flown into the arms of Beijing in a last attempt to evade prosecution and prison for life. All it would take to bring him down is firm action against his criminality by the Western powers whose commercial interests and strategic concerns he threatens by cosying up to China. Surely the hard won and expensive lessons of WW2 and the Cold War have not been forgotten or are being deliberately ignored? Act now or pay later