A group of Chinese journalists covering President Xi Jinping’s Malaysia visit have delighted social media in the Southeast Asian nation through their grasp of Malay and appreciation of local cuisine.
In a soft-power win during a three-day visit with loftier aims of bolstering global trade, the video posted by one of the journalists went viral as she and several of her colleagues described their lunch in fluent Malay.
“Actually we are all media from China and today we are on assignment in Putrajaya,” Husna Liang of the China Media Group said in almost pitch-perfect Malay towards the end of the two-minute clip. Soon after it lit up TikTok, pulling in more than 380,000 views and nearly 2,000 comments.
The video’s popularity spilled over into X, where it racked up more than 220,000 views and hundreds of comments and shares.
The Chinese journalists were part of the press corps that followed Xi on his week-long tour of Southeast Asia. They were in Malaysia’s administrative capital of Putrajaya to cover his bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim on Wednesday.