Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Sunday that China was misunderstood by some people who said the country was becoming "tough."

"We stick to our principals, which is totally different from being tough," Yang said at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.

It has always been the mission for China's diplomacy to defend China's sovereignty, security and development interests, and to promote world peace and development, he said.

"It is unfair to label actions safeguarding one's own core interests and dignity as tough and take it for granted infringing interests of a foreign country," said Yang.

(Xinhua News Agency March 7, 2010)