China is, today, by far and away the biggest foreign player in the Malaysian economy, a position that has been achieved in an alarmingly short span of time, spawning a raft of questions and soul-searching. Questions such as: How did China achieve this prominence so quickly? What factors contributed? On how many levels has this penetration been achieved? And, should Malaysia be worried by what appears to be chequebook diplomacy and outcomes that include economic and resource capture?

Prof Edmund Terence Gomez, Professor of Political Economy, and Dr Cheong Kee Cheok, Senior Fellow at the Institute of China Studies, both of University Malaya, discuss these issues in the context of their book, ‘China in Malaysia’.