More than 300 Chinese nationals have used Malaysia as a transit point to join up with militant Islamic State (IS) forces in the Middle East, Kuala Lumpur has revealed as Beijing worries about the domestic risks the recruits pose.

According to Malaysian media reports, the country’s home affairs minister, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said the Chinese citizens would go to a third country from Malaysia before entering Syria and Iraq.

“Although there exists an arrangement between Malaysia and China to combat terrorism, this problem is serious. This is because ties exist at the international level between terrorists in China and those in other countries in Southeast Asia,” Zahid was quoted by Malaysian news agency Bernama as saying.

…Southeast Asian countries, particularly Malaysia and Indonesia, have become popular transit points for Chinese nationals travelling to jihadist hotspots, according to Rohan Gunaratna, a terrorism expert and head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University.