History of Malaysia-China ties prepares govts, people for the future

MALAYSIA and China have gone through several cycles of upswings and downswings.

The experience has prepared the governments and the people of both countries to look back at a tumultuous past and enabled them to survive the present with eager caution. This will also move them forward with anxious anticipation of the future.

Malaysia and China established diplomatic relations only in 1974, but contact between the countries, according to published records, started much earlier.

In the 15th century, at the height of the reign of the Melaka Sultanate, Emperor Ming had sent Admiral Cheng Ho to Melaka.

Malaya, as the country was known under British rule, had battled the communists in an insurgency that lasted from 1948 to 1960.

The Emergency had involved the Malayan Communist Party, which was said to have the backing of the Chinese Communist Party. This period was preceded by the Japanese Occupation from 1941 to 1945.

During the colonial period, the British had to bring in Chinese miners to work at tin mines.

Tin and rubber became revenue streams for the British administration in its efforts to boost the country’s economy.

Once Malaya gained independence in 1957 and the Emergency ended in 1960, the country was well on its way to nation-building. It took its place in the United Nations and played a proactive role in international and regional diplomacy.

Aware of the importance of peace and security, the country never took for granted its route to prosperity.

Malaysia then joined other like-minded countries in the region, five in all, to form the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in 1967. This later became 10 strong by the 1980s.

Together with the declaration that the region would be a Zone of Peace, Freedom and Neutrality, Asean was able to foster closer relations with the communist republic. Thus, in 1974, Malaysia became the first Asean country to establish diplomatic relations with Beijing.

Between the recent present and the immediate future, Malaysia and China will see closer diplomatic relations in the global environment. The important milestones were:

THE Declaration on the Code of Conduct in the South China Sea (1996, 2002);

CHINESE President Xi Jinping’s visit to Malaysia in 2013 that saw an upgrade in relations; and,

PRIME Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s visit to China last year and his endorsement of China’s Belt and Road Initiative.