China opposes any country building on illegally occupied islands, reefs

China firmly opposes any country carrying out construction on illegally occupied islands and reefs, said Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun at a press briefing in Beijing on Monday.

Guo made the statement in response to a media query about a U.S. think tank's report released on Friday, which said that Vietnam has sharply expanded its island-building activities in waters of the South China Sea's Nansha Qundao with the scale of construction potentially matching or even surpassing China's.

"The Nansha Qundao are China's inherent territory. China firmly opposes the relevant country carrying out construction activities on illegally occupied islands and reefs, and will take necessary measures to safeguard its territorial sovereignty and maritime rights and interests," he said.

China opposes any country building on illegally occupied islands, reefs

China opposes any country building on illegally occupied islands, reefs

China's outstanding aggregate social financing -- the total amount of financing to the real economy -- reached 442.12 trillion yuan (about 63.4 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of 2025, up 8.3 percent year on year, central bank data showed on Thursday.

The country's aggregate social financing stood at 35.6 trillion yuan (about 5.1 trillion U.S. dollars) in 2025, up by 3.34 trillion yuan (about 479 billion U.S. dollars) from the year 2024, said the People's Bank of China (PBOC), the country's central bank.

According to the data, the M2, a broad measure of money supply that covers cash in circulation and all deposits, increased 8.5 percent year on year to 340.29 trillion yuan (about 48.8 trillion U.S. dollars) as of the end of December.

In addition, outstanding yuan loans stood at 271.91 trillion yuan (about 39 trillion U.S. dollars) at the end of 2025, up 6.4 percent year on year.

China's aggregate social financing maintains high growth in 2025