Former Malaysian Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad speaking exclusively to WION's Executive Editor Palki Sharma as part of Global Leadership Series said that that going to war with China is not an option because it is a very powerful country.

"We tried to find other ways of solving our strained relations with China. It cannot be compared to India as they have a different system and viewpoints. While India is more liberal and willing to accept criticism, China is not," Mahathir said in an exclusive conversation with WION.

"There are ways of doing things. Its not always through confrontation," he added.

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When questioned about what he has done for the Muslims of China, Mahathir said: "We tried to talk to the Chinese. But their response was not good. But I think the Chinese are becoming more and more conscious of the need for them to be a little bit more liberal towards the Muslims in China."

"China has offered to work with any country in terms of developing a vaccine and medicine for this pandemic. They are very cooperative, even with Malaysia and I think, China's attitude is far better than some countries which even consider that if they do find a vaccine, it is only for them," Mahathir said regarding China coronavirus response.

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Mahathir said he does not support an international investigation against Beijing regarding the origin of COVID-19.

"I don't think it is the time for finger-pointing. What we need to do is to try and resolve this as a problem for the whole world. Pointing fingers at China doesn't help at all. In fact, China has shown how they can handle this pandemic much better than the United States of America for example," he said.

On China's neo-colonialism comment made a few years ago, Mahathir said: "the Malay states, the small Malay states of Malaysia have had relations with China for nearly 2,000 years and that they survived at all is a miracle because if China would have been like the Europeans we would have been colonised by China by now. But China has maintained the relation to the point where even though they call themselves the Middle Kingdom, the biggest country in the world, we survived despite their obvious size and power.

"China is not as bad as the Europeans. The Europeans came here in 1509, two years later they colonised us. China has known us for longer than that and they have not colonised us," he said, adding,"today, we have a problem with China making claims in the South China Sea but we cannot go to war with China, we have to find other solutions to the problem."

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China conscious about becoming liberal towards Muslims in the country, says Mahathir Mohamad to WION - WION