The Malaysia-China Belt & Road Institute (MCBRI) operates as a focal educational unit within the Southeast Asia Research Centre for Humanities (SEARCH). Its primary objective is to facilitate academic collaboration between China and Malaysia, focusing on research and knowledge exchange, talent development, collaborative projects and publications, sharing educational resources, and jointly developing educational programs. MCBRI’s membership includes both institution members and fellowship members. Institution members encompass various entities such as universities, research institutes, and think tanks from Malaysia and China that share a mutual interest in advancing academic cooperation between the two countries. Meanwhile, fellowship members comprise individual academics, visiting researchers, scholars, as well as PhD and Master’s students hailing from both Malaysia and China, all of whom are eager to share their expertise and research efforts in the realm of Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) collaboration.