Ex-Fox News host says 'the Malays don't have money' in dismissal of Xi Jinping's visit to M'sia

China’s President Xi Jinping arrived in Cambodia on Apr. 17, the third and final stop in a Southeast Asia tour that included Vietnam and Malaysia.

It comes amidst a storm in the region as worries over the US's tariff implementation hit the three countries particularly hard.

No money, no problem

But Xi’s visit has been mocked by conservative commentators in the U.S., as a prominent former Fox News Host, Bill O’Reilly, mocked Malaysia for “not having any money”.

O'Reilly was once a prominent presenter on the Fox News network before being dismissed after harassment allegations.

In a clip on social media, O’Reilly mockingly addressed Xi, saying, “Let me just break it to you. Those folks have no money at all”, referring to the people of the three countries Xi was visiting.

“They cannot help you; they’re not going to buy your stuff because they don’t have any money.”

O’Reilly expressed bafflement at what China was doing, suggesting that China, although he probably meant Chinese companies, might attempt to mask their exports to the U.S. by “sneaking” them in “under the Vietnamese label.

"The Malays don't have any money".

Omputeh bau tanah ni pandang hina Malaysia, Vietnam dan Cambodia.

Ko mampos je lah, bodoh.

I haven't detested Americans this much with the way they look down on us Southeast Asians. pic.twitter.com/wgjqJ2CVgZ

— ᴊᴏᴇ ʟᴇᴇ (@iamjoelee) April 16, 2025

O'Reilly said he believed the U.S. and China would eventually reach a “detente” because China could not afford to lose the U.S. consumer because “we (the U.S.) have the money, we buy the stuff”.

“The ‘May-lays’”, as O’Reilly questionably pronounced it, “aren’t going to buy your stuff; they don’t have any money.”

Not with that attitude

Xi’s visit to Southeast Asia has been in the works for far longer than the tariff announcements, so the visit's relation to the U.S.’s tariff announcements is largely a coincidence.

But it comes weeks after Trump levied eye-watering tariffs of 49 per cent for Cambodia, 46 per cent for Vietnam, and 26 per cent on Malaysia.

China is engaged in a tit-for-tat escalatory series of retaliatory tariffs, with China facing 245 per cent tariffs from the U.S. and China imposing 125 per cent tariffs in return.

The tariff war has become the main topic of Xi’s state visit, with China playing up the historical ties and extensive trade ties in an essay delightfully titled “May the Ship of China-Malaysia Friendship Sail Toward an Even Brighter Future.”

U.S. President Trump has speculated that Xi’s visit was “probably intended to screw” the U.S.

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Top image via Joe Lee/X