In 1974, during the height of the Cold War, the Malaysian Prime Minister, Tun Abdul Razak, visited Beijing, long considered a suspect country as a result of the two countries’ opposing ideological inclination, and thus belonging to different camps in the contestation for influence of the opposing blocs of countries. Little could Razak imagine that the bilateral relationship between the two countries would grow to a stage of closeness and interdependency that manifested over the past decade. During the past decade, China has grown to be Malaysia’s largest trading partner, and one of the principal contributors of direct foreign investment. These developments had inevitably started a new development in the bilateral relationship; namely, the influx of Chinese nationals to Malaysia. This development is interesting considering the historical background of the relations—from that of massive immigration of Chinese into the territories that formed present-day Malaysia. Chinese migration then came to a standstill with the taking over of China by the Chinese Communist Party as Malaya—and later, Malaysia—was fighting an armed insurgency led by the Malayan Communist Party, which was supported by the Chinese. This resumption of Chinese nationals moving to Malaysia has created some ripples, not least among the authorities but also among the public at large.

The rise of the People’s Republic of China that was precipitated by the introduction of the Open Door and Reformation policies since 1978 saw China transform itself from a backward, ideologically dominated country to a modern and economically powerful nation. This transformation process has also undergone changes from a gradual and experimental stage in the 1980s and 1990s to full-blown economic development that saw the country rising to be the fastest growing economy in the world. This transformation also brought massive changes to Chinese business enterprises from the state-owned enterprises that were not performing in line with the changing times to be the multinational corporate bodies that helped to spearhead stronger economic performance for China. In 2010, the country overtook Japan as the second-largest economy in the world. The introduction of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in 2013 further strengthened the development of the Chinese economy and provided impetus for stronger economic performance.

The past 12 months have been a very successful year for Vietnam's foreign relations. The single most important event in Vietnam's foreign relations calendar in 2005 was Prime Minister Phan Van Khai's six-day visit to the United States from 19 to 25 June. The visit, the first by a national leader of Vietnam to the United States in 30 years, coincided with the tenth anniversary of the normalization of relations between the two countries. The event is also important as it came exactly 30 years after the end of the Vietnam War when the two sides faced off in the conflict. On his return to Vietnam, the visit was celebrated as a huge success, and the event was described by Prime Minister Khai as an event that would hardly have been possible only ten years earlier.

The success of Khai's visit is significant for Vietnam in at least three ways: first, it points to the further improvements in the Vietnam-US relations; second, it reveals the unconventional Vietnamese stance on several important issues affecting the nation; and third, the government hopes to capitalize on the successes in its foreign relations to strengthen its position in domestic politics, especially in the run-up to the 10 th National Congress of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV) in 2006.

In 2005, however, domestic issues continued to dominate much of Vietnam's politics. The ruling party, the CPV, faced challenges in pursuing its reform programme without compromising its position as the paramount party in the country. The threats posed by endemic corruption and the government's efforts to overcome it, questions relating to religious freedom and the government's handling of political dissidents continued to dominate much of Vietnam's domestic politics as well as getting the attention of its leaders. The pace of equitization of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs), by turning them into joint stock companies, and Vietnam's pending entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO) were two of the main economic concerns.