Malaysia's sultan to visit China, eyes infrastructure support

Malaysia's Sultan Ibrahim will visit China for a four-day visit, China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday, with the ceremonial ruler from the southern state of Johor likely to seek support to revive projects boosting its connectivity to neighbouring Singapore. Sultan Ibrahim was installed as the country's 17th king in January, under a unique system of monarchy where the heads of Malaysia's nine royal families take turns to be the king every five years, and are supposed to stay above politics. But the 65 year-old has indicated he intends to weigh in on the country's political issues, and proposed Malaysia's state oil firm Petroliam Nasional and the country's anti-corruption agency report directly to the king during an interview with Singapore's Strait Times newspaper ahead of his installation.