In the past decades, China has solved boundary issues with 12 out of its 14 land neighbors with about 20,000 km of borderlines delineated. In addition, China and Vietnam have set the maritime boundary in the Beibu Gulf.

Li said those remarkable achievements fully demonstrate that bilateral negotiations and consultations are an effective means to solve territorial disputes and the Chinese government will continue to follow this approach.

In early 2013, the Philippines unilaterally initiated arbitration against China on the South China Sea dispute.

Regarding that legal action, Li said China's position is clear and consistent: "No acceptance, no participation," he said.

"Whatever the outcome is and whatever the ruling is, China, as one of the founding members of the United Nations, one of the signatories of the 1945 San Francisco Treaty of United Nations and one of the parties to the UNCLOS (United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea), has every reason to reject the final ruling," Li said.

Asked about disagreements between China and the US, Li said that with China, the largest developing country in the world, and the United States, the largest developed country, it's only natural to have some disagreements.

"But I think we should manage and resolve those differences, and cherish and expand our converging interests," he said.

"As a retired diplomat, I feel inspired to see that through many meetings on different occasions, President Obama and President Xi Jinping have reached a consensus in building a new model of major country relationship, featuring no-conflicts, no confrontation and mutual beneficial cooperation, so both China and the United States can work together to promote world peace and progress."

(China Daily 06/24/2016 page2)