Before Malaysia's historic change of power in May 2018, Chinese investments were concentrated in large infrastructure projects generally viewed as belonging to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Chinese factories were dismantled and rebuilt in Malaysia to reduce excess capacities on the Mainland, while Chinese technological standards were exported in order to control regional and global value chains. After a democratically legitimized government replaced Malaysia's authoritarian system, BRI investments had to switch from a powerholder to a stakeholder approach.