Visiting Chinese leader Li Ruihuan, in an interview with Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) in Tokyo over the weekend, lashed out at the "China Threat" fallacy, saying that a developed China will not pose a threat to any country.

Li, Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), is in Japan on a nine-day official good-will visit.

In the interview, Li described the "China Threat" fallacy, spread around the world in recent years by a small group of people with ulterior motives, as utterly unjustifiable.

Asked whether China will become a political, economic and military superpower that threatens Asia, Li said that China will not pose a threat to any country even if it is developed.

"China, having pursued an independent foreign policy of peace, hopes to co-exist with other countries peacefully, and wishes to have a peaceful, stable international atmosphere," he said, adding "China will not change this policy as it is in the Chinese people's long-term fundamental interests."

China once suffered continued bullying and humiliation by foreign powers in the past century, Li said, the peace-loving Chinese people abhor any aggression and will never impose such sufferings on others.

Instead, China will bring about troubles to other countries if it fails to develop.

"With a population of more than 1.2 billion people, China will see no domestic stability if its economy stops growing, and its people will rush abroad to escape famine and poverty under that scenario," Li said, adding that could be a possible "threat" to other countries.

"We do not worry about a rich China, but a poor China," Li quoted a far-sighted leader of a Southeast Asian country as telling him.

With the rapid economic development in recent years, China's ability of economic cooperation with other countries has also been strengthened, resulting in huge benefits to its cooperation partners including Japan, the Chinese leader pointed out.

Good to every country in the world, China's stability and development are great contributions to world peace and development, Li told the NHK.

The "China Threat" fallacy, preached by a handful of people with the aim to hinder China's development, is doomed to failure, for China's development is irresistible, Li said.