It’s in geosynchronous orbit. It’s actually not “near” Malaya at all.
You are being too literal, but you are correct. It’s just the way they refer to it. It wouldn’t make any sense to ordinary people to say it is located at 104 degrees east.
geosynchronous orbit? spy satellite? that would mean it would be 22,000 miles from what it was “spying” on and could only spy on one spot.
I thought spy satellites were usually low, polar orbit satellites so they could cover the whole Earth AND be as close as possible to what they were spying on.
It’s good to hear we actually still have a space program, anyway.