Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "China–Malaysia relations" in English language version.
In 1511... Alboquerque himself sailed ... to attack Malacca...The Sultan of Malacca fled down the coast, to establish himself in the marshes of Johore, whence he sent petitions for redress to his remote suzerain, the Chinese Emperor. These petitions later caused the Portuguese, in their efforts to gain admission to trade at Canton, a great deal of trouble. When the Portuguese tried to penetrate, in their own ships, to Canton itself, their reception by the Chinese authorities—understandably, in view of their reputation at Malacca—was unwelcoming, and several decades elapsed before they secured a tolerated toehold at Macao.
The inexusable behaviour of the Portuguese, combined with the ill-chosen language of the letters which Pires presented to the celestial emperor, supplemented by a warning from the Malay sultan of Bintan, persuaded the Chinese that Pires was indeed up to no good.
One of the great beneficiaries of Chinese naval power in the early years of the fifteenth century was the city-state of Malacca...Perceiving threats from Majapahit and the Thai who were extending their power down the Malay peninsula, Paramesvara looked to the more distant Chinese as a counterweight. He responded quickly to Ming overtures, sent a diplomatic mission to China in 1405. Visits by Zheng He's fleets left little doubt in the region that Malacca had become a Chinese protectorate. Taking no chances, Paramesvara personally led diplomatic mission to Peking on two or three occasions. Having overrun the Chinese protectorate at Malacca, the Portuguese now prepared to challenge the region's hegemonic power.
The Chinese recognised Malacca as an independent state and warned the king of Thailand not to meddle with it. Nevertheless, the Chinese did not seek to establish colonies overseas, even when they anchored in places with large Chinese populations, like Sumatra and Java. They turned Malacca into a kind of protectorate and built a fortified warehouse there, but that was about it.
Important legacy of Chinese imperialism... by intervening in the Malacca Straits in a way that facilitated the rise of Malacca, and protected it from depredations from Thailand (Siam) and from Java's state of Majapahit; Malacca having been founded by a ruler fleeing Singapore in the fact of Thai and Javanese hostility. Malacca repeatedly sent envoys to China. China in turn claimed the power to deter other tributary states, such as Thailand, from interfering with Malacca, and also claimed to have raised the 'chief' of Malacca to the status of king in 1405, and Malacca to a protected polity in 1410. Malacca as a Muslim Sultanate consolidated itself and thrived precisely in an era of Chinese-led 'globalisation'. which was gathering pace by the late fourteenth century, and peaked at this time.
In the year 1474 the censor Ch'en Chun went to Champa with an imperial commission to invest the king there, but on his arrival, he found the country occupied by Annamese soldiers, so that he could not enter it; he then went to Malacca, with the goods he had brought, and ordered its king to send tribute; when, subsequently, his envoys arrived at the capital, the emperor was much pleased, and issued a decree in which they were praised. report that the envoys of their country, who had returned from China in 1469. had been driven by a storm on the coast of Annam, where many of their people were killed; the rest had been made slaves, and the younger ones had further undergone castration. They also told that the Annamese now occupied Champa, and that they wanted to conquer their country too, but that Malacca, remembering that they all were subjects of the emperor, hitherto had abstained from reciprocating these hostilities. At the same time the envoys with the tribute of Annam arrived also, and the envoys of Malacca requested permission to argue the question with them before the court, but the Board of War submitted that the affair was already old, and that it was of no use to investigate it any more. When therefore the envoys of Annam returned, the emperor gave them a letter in which their king was reproved, and Malacca received instructions to raise soldiers and resist by force, whenever it was attacked by Annam.
Other reports condemned Annamese alleged violation of an Asian "diplomatic protocol" as they killed and enslaved several Southeast Asian envoys who carried tributary missions to China in 1469. Older members of the mission were all killed while younger members were castrated and enslaved.
The Portuguese spent several years trying to establish formal relations with China, but Malacca had been part of the Chinese tributary system, and the Chinese had found out about the Portuguese attack, making them suspicious. The embassy was formally rejected in 1521.
Envoy, had most effectively poured out his tale of woe, of deprivation at the hands of the Portuguese in Malacca; and he had backed up the tale with others concerning the reprehensible Portuguese methods in the Moluccas, making the case (quite truthfully) that European trading visits were no more than the prelude to annexation of territory. With the tiny sea power at this time available to the Chinese.
In China was far from friendly; this, it seems, had something to do with the complaint which the ruler of Malacca, conquered by the Portuguese in 1511, had lodged with the Chinese emperor, his suzerain.
A message came to the king of Bintang from his ambassador [in Canton], and the man who brought it soon returned. The report which the king of Bintang was spreading in the country is that the Chinese intended to come against Malacca. This is not very certain, though there are things that may happen. If they come, they will do great harm, unless the Captain-major [of India] shall come in time, as I am writing to him. . . The man who brought a message to the king of Bintang 'soon returned', says Jorge de Albuquerque. Vieira tells us that the junk 'returned with a message from the king of Malacca, and reached Canton on the 5th September' (fol.110V.). . . 'On the day of St. Nicholas [6 Dec.] in the year 1522 they put boards on them [the Portuguese prisoners] with the sentence that they should die and be exposed in pillories as robbers. The sentences said: "Petty sea robbers sent by the great tobber falsely; they come to spy out our country; let them die in pillories as robbers." a report was sent to the king according to the information of the mandarins, and the king confirmed the sentence. On 23 Sept. 1523 these twenty-three persons were each one cut in pieces, to wit, heads, legs, arms, and their private members placed in their mouths, the trunk of the body being divided into two pices around the belly.
Chinese authors have argued, the Malacca-Chinese were not treated too favourably by the Portuguese...it is generally true that Chinese ships tended to avoid Malacca after 1511, sailing to other ports instead. Presumably these ports were mainly on the east coast of the Malayan peninsula and on Sumatra. Johore, in the deep south of the peninsula, was another place where many Chinese went... After 1511, many Chinese who were Muslims sided with other Islamic traders against the Portuguese; according to The Malay Annals of Semarang and Cerbon, Chinese settlers living on northern Java even became involved in counter-attacks on Malacca. Javanese vessels were indeed sent out but suffered a disastrous defeat. Demak and Japara alone lost more than seventy sail.
Still others withdrew to continue business with the Javanese, Malays and Gujaratis...When the Islamic world considered counter-attacks against Portuguese Malacca, some Chinese residents may have provided ships and capital. These Chinese had their roots either in Fujian, or else may have been of Muslim descent. This group may have consisted of small factions that fled Champa after the crisis of 1471.
Hundred thousand Chinese imitated his example; and the whole empire, from Tonkin to the great wall, submitted to the dominion of Cublai. His boundless ambition aspired to the conquest of Japan: his fleet was twice shipwrecked; and the lives of a hundred thousand Moguls and Chinese were sacrificed in the fruitless expedition. But the circumjacent kingdoms, Corea, Tonkin, Cochinchina, Pegu, Bengal, and Thibet, were reduced in different degrees of tribute and obedience by the effort or terror of his arms. He explored the Indian Ocean with a fleet of a thousand ships: they sailed in sixty-eight days, most probably to the Isle of Borneo, under the equinoctial line; and though they returned not without spoil or glory, the emperor was dissatisfied that the savage king had escaped from their hands.
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)Hundred thousand Chinese imitated his example; and the whole empire, from Tonkin to the great wall, submitted to the dominion of Cublai. His boundless ambition aspired to the conquest of Japan: his fleet was twice shipwrecked; and the lives of a hundred thousand Moguls and Chinese were sacrificed in the fruitless expedition. But the circumjacent kingdoms, Corea, Tonkin, Cochinchina, Pegu, Bengal, and Thibet, were reduced in different degrees of tribute and obedience by the effort or terror of his arms. He explored the Indian Ocean with a fleet of a thousand ships: they sailed in sixty-eight days, most probably to the Isle of Borneo, under the equinoctial line; and though they returned not without spoil or glory, the emperor was dissatisfied that the savage king had escaped from their hands.