Beijing, April 12 -- Over three decades ago, Xi Jinping, then serving as the top official in Fuzhou, a southeastern city in China, visited Malaysia on an investment promotion trip and was profoundly impressed by two symbolic sites.

One of these sites was the Poh San Teng Temple, a long-standing homage to the renowned Chinese navigator Zheng He (1371-1433) of the Ming Dynasty. The other is the city of Sibu, which became known as "New Fuzhou" after Wong Nai Siong, a Fuzhou native, migrated to Malaysia with over one thousand Chinese people more than a century ago.

Both places testify to the millennium-old China-Malaysia friendship, a bond Xi has repeatedly pledged to inherit and cement as China's head of state. During a 2013 visit to Malay...