Xi reminds Biden that China has never taken a single inch of land from another country.

At a virtual summit with US counterpart Joe Biden on Tuesday, Chinese President Xi Jinping portrayed China as a peace-loving nation that has never started a war or claimed an inch of another country's land, downplaying criticism that Beijing is becoming increasingly aggressive in its territorial claims.

"The Chinese have always loved and treasured peace." "Aggression or hegemony is not in the Chinese blood," Xi told Biden.

"China has never started a single war or conflict, and has never taken one inch of land from other countries," he claimed, in an apparent attempt to downplay criticism that Beijing is aggressively asserting territorial claims in disputed areas, whether along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with India, the South China Sea, or the maritime dispute with Japan.

China has constructed artificial islands in the disputed South China Sea, which is claimed by Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines, Brunei, and Taiwan.

China was also involved in a maritime conflict with Japan over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea, which the Chinese call Diaoyu islands.