(File Photo: VCG)

China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said China always maintains that all countries should respect each others' sovereignty and territorial integrity, non-aggression and non-interference in each other's internal affairs.

Countries have the right to choose their own development paths suited to their national conditions. This is also an important part of the Five Principles of Peaceful Coexistence, the MFA said on Wednesday.

"We note that US Vice President Mike Pence has publicly expressed hope that all countries in the Asia-Pacific region will be free to choose their own path. We hope that the United States will respect and support countries in following their own path, not only in the Asia-Pacific region, but all over the world, and refrain from interference, intimidation, threats, aggression and double standards," MFA spokesperson Hua Chunying said.

Pence told reporters in Tokyo a day earlier that the United States wants all countries in the Indo-Pacific region to be free to choose their own path and pursue their own interests. "Authoritarianism" and "aggression" have no place there, he said.