Increasingly provocative behaviour by China in the disputed South China Sea means it is "only a matter of time" before a major incident or accident occurs in the region, a US Defense Department official warned Tuesday.
"In recent months, we've witnessed a sharp increase in unsafe and unprofessional behaviour by PLA ships and aircraft, implicating not only US forces but allied forces operating in the region," Ely Ratner, assistant secretary of defence for Indo-Pacific security affairs, told a think tank event in Washington, using the acronym for the People's Liberation Army, the Chinese military.
