In the face of divided opinions on the rise of the Chinese mainland, former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamed stressed that the Chinese mainland's rise cannot be stopped. He highlighted that the Chinese mainland is a huge market with significant skills and capacity. \"The world cannot always be dominated by Europeans … and to go against the Chinese mainland is not something that Southeast Asian countries would like to do, because we find the Chinese mainland is useful in many ways,\" Mahathir pointed out.
