China Is Outsourcing Its Cities on Man-Made Islands in Malaysia
Forest City is a Chinese development with room for 700,000 residents being built across a string of man-made islands just off the coast of Malaysia. Since Malaysia and Singapore are separated only by a narrow strip of water—they were a single country until 1965—the $100 billion development is marketed chiefly as Singapore-adjacent. Promotional materials call it a “global cluster of commerce and culture,” as if it pledges allegiance to no country at all, and note that a new light rail system will connect it to the nearby KLSR.