China won’t bend on territorial claims, says foreign minister

China has ruled out any climb-down on its territorial claims in its neighbourhood saying that it would not make any concessions in its stand on its territorial disputes with neighbouring nations.

"China will never make concessions in territorial disputes with its neighbours, while good relations with the US depend on Washington respecting Beijing's sovereignty claims," foreign minister Wang Yi said today.

On China's disputes with Southeast Asian nations and Japan, he said, ''There is no room for compromise'' and China will ''never accept unreasonable demands from smaller countries.''

Wang sounded more defiant on disputes with Japan, the Philippines and others that have sharpened tensions in the Asia Pacific.

Wang Yi, a former ambassador to Japan, made his comments at a scheduled news conference on the fourth day of the National People's Congress.

Wang took questions from foreign and Chinese news organisations on the same morning he learned that a Malaysia Airlines flight bound for Beijing had disappeared, and he spoke on a range of subjects that included Ukraine, the Korean Peninsula and relations between China and the United States.

Wang, however, insisted several times that China was committed to regional peace.

He also did not make any reference to Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe's recent public remarks on China-Japan relations and his visit in December to the Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where Japanese war dead are honoured, including 14 Class A war criminals.

China refuses to accept Japan's administration of, or its claims to, the islands in the East China Sea that Japan calls the Senkaku and China calls the Diaoyu.

In the South China Sea, China has been trying to stake sovereignty to islands and waters that are also claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines and Malaysia.

''On the two issues of principle - history and territory - there is no room for compromise,'' Wang said.

''If some people in Japan insist on overturning the verdict on its past aggression, I don't think the international community and all peace-loving people in the world will ever tolerate or condone that.''