China is dialing down its heated rhetoric about fighting a war against the United States over the South China Sea -- a war it knows it can't win and that might ignite a civil war in China -- choosing instead to claim there "cannot be conflict between China and the United States."

China's hawkish foreign minister Wang Yi made these remarks during his current visit to Australia, where he also made other statements that seemed to contradict this conciliatory tone.

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But a war pitting China against the United States would benefit no-one, said Wang.

"For any sober-minded politician, they clearly recognize that there cannot be conflict between China and the United States," he said.

"Both will lose and both sides cannot afford that."

Wang also noted the China-U.S. relationship had survived "all sorts of difficulties" over decades, suggesting that relationship will survive this latest crisis.

But Wang's message of peace was also preceded by a warning that China won't be pushed around by the United States, and the hawkish Trump administration whose leaders, including Trump, view China as an enemy to be contained.

Last month. White House press secretary Sean Spicer said the US "is going to make sure we protect our interests" in the South China Sea.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson earlier said China's access to the islands its built or that its stolen from the Philippines might be blocked by the U.S. Navy, a course of action China will interpret as an act of war.

In Australia, Wang also said the United States needs to brush-up on its history of the South China Sea, which, he claims, clearly shows World War Two agreements mandating that all Chinese territories taken by Japan were to be returned to China.

He said the 1943 Cairo Declaration and 1945 Potsdam Declaration clearly state that Japan had to return to China all Chinese territory taken by Japan.

"This includes the Nansha Islands," using the Chinese name for the contested Spratly Islands also claimed by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam.

Wang blamed these five countries for causing the South China Sea dispute.

Tagschina, war, United States, South China Sea, Wang Yi, Australia, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, spratly islands