China should have been a better friend

China has never really been aggressive towards its neighbors throughout its estimated 5,000 years' history.

It has never been a conquering nation. Back then, if the rulers of China ever felt like having some military action to satisfy their ego, they rather do so by killing each other rather then taking the trouble of invading other countries.

The only foreign wars the Chinese had ever fought back then were defensive wars against the barbaric northern tribes such as the Mongols and carrying out occasional punitive actions against the pirates of Japan who were causing some mischiefs along the Chinese shoreline.

As for the natives living south of the Chinese border, they were mostly looked down at and considered too inconsequential to be bothered with.

Small states such as the Malacca Sultanate regarded China as a benevolent superpower and looked up to it as a protector, especially to ward off the local bully of Siam, now known as Thailand.

Sometimes I wondered what if China had at that time decided to colonize all the countries in South East Asia. I am confident the Chinese at that time could had done that if they really wanted to do so. 

Had they done that, I would probably be writing this in Chinese.

But China had remained a docile giant which preferred to mind its own business.

Things however changed at the turn of last century with the demise of imperial China and the ensuing upheavals which cost millions of lives due to wars, famine and other such nasty happenings.

It was around this time that waves of migrant Chinese, fleeing the hardship in their motherland arrived on the then Malayan shores and other parts of South East Asia.

They were forced to assimilate by the locals, except in the then Malaya. The Malays of this country accepted the Chinese the way they were and in return the Chinese at that time agreed that the Malays and other natives may have certain rights exclusive for themselves. It was a relationship developed on trust, a concept  hardly understood these day.

Fast forward to present day, China is poised to take over from the US as the biggest economy in the world. 

Despite the new found wealth, the country is still relatively a developing country with the overwhelming majority of its over one billion people still living in poverty. 

That's why you can find Chinese nationals working in massage parlors here, among other places. There was even a video of a female Chinese national giving some sorts of dodgy massage to a very famous Malay politician.

Nonetheless, the Chinese government had apparently decided that such indignities needed to be rectified and therefore the country needs to flex its muscle to show the world that it's a real superpower instead of exporter of cheap labour of all kind.

Thus the China's departure from its peaceful nature, nurtured all those centuries ago.

Just look at this China's territorial claim over most of South China Sea and decide for yourself whether China does now intends to be a big bad bully of the region as part of its show of force,

Their marines had even landed on the James shoal within Malaysia's territorial water off Sarawak a few months ago, claiming it as theirs.

Lying about 80 km (50 mi) northwest of Bintulu, the shoal is 80 kilometres (50 mi) from the Malaysian coast and about 1,800 kilometres (1,100 mi) from the Chinese mainland.

They had done the same in territorial water of Japan, Vietnam and the Philippines.

As history had it, Malaysia has always been considered as China's best friend in the region. Yes, we have better ties with China than Singapore, the close American ally which majority of its population were Chinese.

Despite that, now that it's rich and really powerful, China had decided that Malaysia is just a little country which should listen and fulfill its wishes, even to the point of surrendering its sovereignty and territory.

"We are your friend, but you better listen to what we say and comply with our demands."

That's China's current language of diplomacy as far as Malaysia is concerned.

The MH370 tragedy had amplified the status quo of relationship between the two countries with Chinese state-control media going all out at condemning Malaysia's handling of the crisis.

Even the demonstration by relatives of MH370 passengers at the Malaysian embassy in Beijing last week was believed to have been sponsored and carried out with the blessing of the Chinese government.

It's an exercise which demonstrated China asserting its dominance over a small country.

Most readers of this blog were probably not well versed in Chinese and therefore not aware with what's happening in the Chinese social media where anti-Malaysia feeling was being whipped up in the aftermath of the tragedy.

The attacks were not just directed at our government, but the country as a whole.

Malaysia is once again just an uncivilized incompetent little country, south of the Middle Kingdom's border. 

That's what our country had been reduced to be in the eyes of the Chinese. 

The most unfortunate thing was that there were fellow Malaysians who joined in the attacks against our country in those Chinese social media platform.

So, where should we go from here as far as China is concerned?

Should we be a closer ally of the US, to counter the threat posed by the Chinese?

Bear in mind that the majority of Malay Muslims of Malaysia may not like it that much if the government get too cosy with the Americans who had been all these while been bullying their fellow Muslims in the Middle East.

But what was the value of their thoughts on the matter, anyway?

It's such a pity that China has to behave the way it does.

We would have prefer Malaysia to be a closer friend of China than that of the US.

But what choice do we have now after being treated that way by the Chinese?

I guess, success just got into the China's head, making it swelled too big for its own good.

It's just too bad and such a let down.