new Date().getFullYear() in React

You need to put the Pure JavaScript inside {}. This works for me:

class HelloMessage extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return <div>{(new Date().getFullYear())}</div>;
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(<HelloMessage />, mountNode);

The compiled version is:

class HelloMessage extends React.Component {
  render() {
    return React.createElement(
      "div",
      null,
      new Date().getFullYear()
    );
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(React.createElement(HelloMessage, null), mountNode);