The Chinese president says the Asian nation would protect its sovereign territory amid Beijing’s maritime disputes with several neighboring countries.
“We should firmly uphold China’s territorial sovereignty, maritime rights and interests and national unity,” Xi Jinping said in a key foreign policy speech at a Communist Party meeting held on Friday and Saturday, according to excerpts of his speech carried by the Xinhua news agency on Sunday.
The remarks came as bilateral relations between China and Japan soured with a territorial dispute over a group of uninhabited yet strategically-important islands in the East China Sea, known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.
Tensions grew after Tokyo nationalized part of the resource-rich islands in 2012.
China and Southeast Asian countries, including Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Brunei, also have engaged in dispute over the Spratly islands in the South China Sea. Taiwan has a claim to part of the Spratlys too.
Xi, meanwhile, added that China should “promote peaceful resolution of differences and disputes between countries through dialogue and consultation, and oppose the willful use of threat of force.”
He further said that China has advocated the establishment of a new type of international relations “underpinned by win-win cooperation,” noting that Beijing championed “a new vision featuring common, comprehensive, cooperative and sustainable security.”
Ties between Beijing and Tokyo have improved after Xi and Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met on November 10. However, coast guard vessels regularly confront each other in waters around the islands.
“We should increase China's soft power, give a good Chinese narrative, and better communicate China's message to the world,” Xi said.
China has vowed over USD 120 billion since May to Africa, Southeast Asia and Central Asia, including a 40-billion-dollar New Silk Road fund and a 50-billion-dollar Beijing-backed Asian Infrastructure INVESTMENT Bank. © Provided by Press TV
MR/MKA/KA
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