KUALA LUMPUR, May 27 — Washington is teaming up with Republican lawmakers to “defend the practice of slavery” in Malaysia where a human trafficking crisis is ongoing, over a need to contain China’s growing presence in the region, the Huffington Post suggested.

According to report on the news site, the US may choose to overlook Malaysia’s people smuggling record that could force the latter’s exclusion from the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA), due to the trade and geopolitical interests.

“It’s about global power, geopolitics and pushing back against the rise of China. And that starts with Malaysia,” the report said.

The report also pointed out that Malaysia holds a key ocean channel linking the Pacific to the Indian Ocean that is used by China to transport 85 per cent of its crude oil.

“By reaffirming ties to Malaysia through the TPP, the US would secure its ability to pressure China — and punish it for disruptive behaviour in the South China Sea and elsewhere— courtesy of the Strait of Malacca,” it said.

Such concerns meant the White House would unlikely to agree to excluding Malaysia from the TPPA, as the country’s absence would devalue the deal and send a weak signal to China, it added.

Huffington Post reported last Friday that while the White House is on the verge of securing the fast-track approval it needs to push ahead with the long-delayed free-trade deal, a US senator has succeeded in inserting a provision that would bar his country from entering agreements with countries officially viewed as engaging in slavery, which includes Malaysia.

But in their report today, the news website further said the White House may work now to take the provision out to ensure that Malaysia “can be part of the deal”.

A US senator predicted this last week, and warned the White House not to countenance the “tragedy” of relaxing or removing Malaysia from the US’ lowest designation for countries involved in people smuggling.

Last year, US State Department’s annual Trafficking in Persons report downgraded Malaysia to Tier 3, its worst ranking on human trafficking abuses globally. Tier 3 countries are open to sanction by the US government.

Malaysia is also embroiled in a fresh human trafficking crisis, which was exposed following a crackdown in Thailand. Nearly 140 mass graves believed to contain hundreds of bodies of people smuggling victims were uncovered in Perlis following vehement denials of their existence by government officials.

Despite this, Putrajaya was not fearful that its poor slavery record may cause Malaysia to be expelled from the regional trade pact, which also involves nine other Pacific nations, as Minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed recently said that “nothing has been finalised yet”.