Malaysian Chinese or Chinese Malaysians are Malaysian citizens of Chinese ethnicity. They form the second-largest ethnic group in Malaysia, after the Malay majority, and as of 2020^[update], constituted 23.2% of the country's citizens. In addition, Malaysian Chinese make up the second-largest community of overseas Chinese globally, after Thai Chinese. Within Malaysia, the ethnic Chinese community maintains a significant and substantial presence in the country's economy.

Most Malaysian Chinese are descendants of Southern Chinese immigrants who arrived in Malaysia between the early 19th and the mid-20th centuries before the country attained independence from British colonial rule. The majority originate from the provinces of Fujian and Lingnan (including the three modern provinces of Guangdong, Hainan and Guangxi). They belong to diverse linguistic subgroups speaking Chinese such as the Hokkien and Fuzhou from Fujian, the Teochew, Cantonese, Hakka from Guangdong, the Hainanese from Hainan and Kwongsai from Guangxi. Most Malaysian Chinese have maintained their Han Chinese heritage, identity, culture and language.

Another group of Chinese migrants who arrived between the 13th and the 17th centuries heavily assimilated aspects of the indigenous Malay cultures and formed a distinct group known as the Peranakan in Kelantan and Terengganu, the Baba-Nyonya in Malacca and Penang, and as the Sino-Natives in Sabah. They exhibit a degree of intermarriage with native groups and are culturally distinct from the majority of the Malaysian Chinese but have recently begun to merge into the Malaysian Chinese mainstream.

The Malaysian Chinese are referred to as simply "Chinese" in Malaysian English, "Orang Cina" in Malay, "Sina" or "Kina" among indigenous groups in Borneo, "Cīṉar" (சீனர்) in Tamil, "Huaren" (華人/华人, Chinese people), Huaqiao (華僑/华侨, overseas Chinese), or "Huayi" (華裔/华裔, ethnic Chinese) in Mandarin, "təŋ laŋ" (唐人) in Hokkien and Wàhyàhn (華人/华人, Chinese people) in Cantonese.

China and other early kingdoms in the Malay Archipelago, such as the northern area of the Malay Peninsula and Po-Ni in western Borneo, have long been connected. The first recorded movement of people from China into present-day Malaysia was the 1292 arrival of Mongol expeditionary forces under Kublai Khan in Borneo in 1292 in preparation for their invasion of Java the following year. Many of Khan's Chinese followers settled on the island with Chinese traders after the campaign, establishing an enclave along the Kinabatangan River. Their arrival was welcomed by the indigenous people, who benefited from the jars, beads, silk, and pottery brought to the island by the Chinese.

Chinese explorer and sailor Zheng He commanded several expeditions to south-east Asia between 1405 and 1430; during his third voyage, Zheng also visited Malacca. His companion and translator, Ma Huan, described Malacca in his Yingya Shenglan. Formerly part of Thailand, Malacca was founded after convoys from the Ming Dynasty developed a city and the area's chief was crowned king. During his fourth imperial-fleet visit, Ma wrote that the local king had just converted to Islam and dressed like an Arab. The last edition of Mingshi, one of the official Chinese Twenty-Four Histories, mentioned a pre-established Chinese settlement in the area. Mentions in other records exist, especially after trade contacts were established with the Nanyang region. According to Hai Yü (Words about the Sea), written by Huang Zhong and published in 1537, the lifestyle of the Chinese community in Malacca differed from that of the local Malays.

This close relationship was maintained during the Islamisation of the Malacca and Brunei kingdoms, whose thalassocracy once covered much of present-day Malaysia. Both the Muslim sultanates pledged protection to the Chinese dynasties from further conquest by the neighbouring Javanese Majapahit or the Siamese Ayutthaya. This relationship resulted in interethnic marriage between the sultanate's royal family and the Chinese envoy and representatives. Zheng He's arrival encouraged the spread of Islam in the Malay Archipelago and aided the growth of the Chinese Muslim population from the Eastern Chinese coastal towns of Fujian and Canton, with many of their traders arriving in the coastal towns of present-day Malaysia and Indonesia by the early 15th century. In addition to the early settlements in Kinabatangan and Malacca, two more old Chinese settlements are located in Terengganu and the Penang Island as part of trade networks with their respective areas.

Although many Chinese traders avoided Portuguese Malacca after its 1511 conquest, the flow of emigrants from China continued. The Zhengde Emperor retaliated against the Portuguese for their activities in Malacca during the Ming dynasty after the arrival of their fleet in Canton. The Chinese emperor was reluctant to help the deposed Malaccan ruler reclaim his position, however, since the dynasty's foreign policy was changing to maintain friendly relations with the Portuguese.