Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad said that Malaysia "can live with" China's growing influence in the region and its contentious claims over the South China Sea as long as it does not seek to restrict the passage of ships especially through the Straits of Malacca.

It would become a "serious problem" if the Chinese were to start checking every ship, the prime minister warned.

"What is important is not the claims (by China) but whether ships can pass through the South China Sea.

"At the moment they are not stopping ships […] at the moment, ships can pass through the Straits of Malacca and the South China Sea.

"The sea is the main communication line, so China wants to make sure the sea is free for its own trade to carry on. I don’t think they want to stop other ships from passing through, and I think Malaysia can live with that," he said in an interview published with the Mekong Review last month.

Asked to comment on China’s increasing influence in the region, he said: "They (China) have a huge fifth column in Malaysia — 25 percent of the Malaysian population is Chinese. Yet they never conquered us when they could have done so.

"On the other hand, the Portuguese came in 1509 and two years later they conquered us. So who do we be afraid of?"

'We don't want to be colonised again'

Even so, the premier acknowledged that the indiscriminate purchase of land by China should not be promoted.

"The Chinese have so much money they can literally buy up the whole of Malaysia. If they did that, we would become a province of China.

"We don’t want that to happen."

Mahathir said that in this matter, Malaysia had the right to preserve its territorial integrity and independence.

He added: "We struggled against colonisation, we became independent and we don’t want to be a colony again whether a virtual or real colony."

The issue of China's growing influence in Asia has been a talking point in many countries including Malaysia.

Since assuming federal power in May, the new Pakatan Harapan government under Mahathir had suspended several high-profile China-linked projects due to financial concerns.

These included the suspension of the East Coast Rail Line (ECRL) and the Strategic Energy Resources (SSER) pipeline projects which were awarded to China-owned companies China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) and the China Petroleum Pipeline Bureau, respectively.

On Aug 27, Mahathir vowed to prevent foreigners from purchasing apartments at the China-owned Forest City residential project in Johor.

Built by China's Country Garden Holdings Company in a joint-venture with businesses owned by the Sultan of Johor, Forest City, which was envisioned as a smart and green city, had mostly been marketed to foreigners especially buyers from China.

Mahathir had repeatedly criticised his predecessor Najib Abdul Razak for allowing the project to go on, arguing that it would severely change the demographics of Johor.

However, Putrajaya has since clarified that the government has no power to bar foreigners from purchasing the remaining properties in Forest City as the man-made islands are located in an international zone.