Chinese President Xi Jinping assured the world that despite China's rapid economic growth and the strengthening of its defense capability, it will not change its principles - creating friendly partnerships with other nations.

Xi issued the clarification when asked by a member of the audience after delivering his speech before guests at Berlin's Koerber Foundation.

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The Chinese President is in Germany for a two-day friendly tour.

There are growing concerns over China's national defense build-up in the last few years, seen as a step toward dominating its neighbor countries.

In early March, the State Council, China's cabinet, announced an increase of 12.2 percent in its military expenditures compared to the 2013 budget, bringing China's defense budget to US $13 billion (80.82 billion Yuan) for the year 2014.

Xi dismissed fears that China's rapid economic growth is a threat to the world especially to its neighbors, and defended the increase in defense spending as a necessary act relative to the size of China's vast territories that need to be defended.

In Xi's speech, he dismissed critics who attempt to liken China to a terrifying Mephisto, a demon in German literature who sucks the soul of the world.

The president boasted that China's rapid growth helps drive economies in neighboring regions, the kind of growth that creates jobs for its trade partners both in the west and in Asia.

Xi believes that countries that dispute China's sovereignty and territorial claims are merely using the scourge of a China threat to tarnish the nation's image.

Xi emphasized that they do not seek to expand beyond what is rightfully theirs but neither will they allow themselves to be subjected to the pain of being enslaved by the mighty and powerful external forces as they experienced during the Opium War years.

Xi looked back to the country's bitter experience under Japan's colonial aggression and reminded the audience of the atrocities committed by Japanese forces during the Second World War, something Xi describes as "still fresh in our memory."