Rare access

Li's press conference, held at the culmination of the National People's Congress, an annual gathering of China's rubberstamp parliament, is one of the only times the press is able to question the country's leaders.

Of the hundreds of journalists and other members of the media gathered in the hall, only around half a dozen were able to ask questions. Topics were screened in advance.

Several questions were asked by members of the foreign press, including CNN, Bloomberg and Japanese newspaper Nikkei.

Li praised many of the reporters for getting to the hall up to "two hours in advance," and, as he has done in previous years, cheerily interrogated non-Chinese reporters on where they learned to speak Mandarin.

No trade war

Li said he was "optimistic" about the future of China-US relations, and added that Beijing does not "want to see a trade war break out."

"China itself has benefited from globalization and China will remain committed to opening up," Li said. "The truth is to shut our door to the outside world would not help China do its own things well."

South China Sea

"Building islands and then putting military assets on those islands is akin to Russia's taking of Crimea. Its taking of territory that others lay claim to," he said in January.

"We're going to have to send China a clear signal that first, the island-building stops, and second, your access to those islands also not going to be allowed."

Li acknowledged that tensions in the region were running high, adding that "China does not want to see any party compelled to choose sides under the influence of a Cold War mentality."

He said that "substantive progress" has been made in regard to a code of conduct for disputes in the South China Sea and called for greater dialog "through the parties directly concerned."

Beijing has always favored bilateral discussions between the parties involved -- where China's economic and military might tends to outweigh all others -- rather than multinational summits.