PETALING JAYA, May 31 — Both countries had different ideologies but that did not stop them from fostering a close bond.

Malaysia and China have grown stronger as friends since both nations established diplomatic ties exactly 40 years ago today. So close that China had on numerous occasions extended a helping hand to us.

This was evident when the Chinese Red Cross sent US$200,000 (RM645,000) worth of emergency aid to the Malaysian Red Cross to help those affected by the major floods in Kuala Lumpur in 1971. More recently, China came to Malaysia’s aid by deploying assets to the South China Sea and Indian Ocean after MH370 went missing on March 8.

Former prime minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein broke convention by choosing to establish ties with the communist China. Some were sceptical in the beginning only to be proven wrong as the ties boosted trade between both countries.

Razak said just before he left for Peking (as Beijing was then known) on May 27, 1974: “I am going on a journey of goodwill and friendship to sow the seeds of mutual understanding between Malaysia and China.”

Upon his return from China, Razak declared a public holiday to mark the success of his visit.

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, who is currently on a six-day visit to China to celebrate the historic occasion and further cement the friendship, said his father’s move was courageous and bold and that the relationship between the two nations was close and personal to him.

“It was not an easy decision (as) security and strategy was very different then,” Najib told local senior editors on the eve of his trip.

He said: “In 1974, there were many who thought we should never have taken this line and route to establish diplomatic ties with China.”

Najib described Razak’s decision to become the first Asean nation to establish diplomatic links with China as a risk that no other country wanted to take.

He said: “I think the turning point was China’s then prime minister Chou En-lai, who my father said he believed in.

“Being an undergraduate, I asked my father why he took the step to establish diplomatic ties, and he told me he believed Chou En-lai was pivotal in that decision.”

He said former China prime minister Wen Jiabao had during his visit to Malaysia insisted that Najib’s mother Tun Rahah Noah join him on the China trip.

“He even brought gifts for her … so with China, it has always been a relationship with the family,” said Najib.

“It is very unusual because other leaders take relationship at the government-to-government level but with the Chinese, it has always been different as they saw Razak as a family relationship.”

Malaysia-China Friendship Association secretary Tan Kai Hee recently said China really appreciated the boldness of Razak in establishing diplomatic relations with China which was isolated by the world at that time.

He said that was why every new Chinese ambassador posted to Malaysia would invite Rahah as a special guest to attend dinners.

As Rahah said: “Although I was never involved with politics or government affairs, I knew his decision to establish diplomatic ties with China was very courageous and visionary.”