DHAKA: A Chinese military official on Saturday blasted the United States for making ‘threats’ after the US defence chief accused Beijing of inflaming tensions in the disputed South China Sea.

China state television reported, says The Straits Times.

US defense secretary Chuck Hagel had denounced China’s ‘destabilising, unilateral actions asserting its claims in the South China Sea’, at a security forum in Singapore which both officials are attending.

The Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Wang Guanzhong described Hagel’s comments as baseless, and condemned him for making them to a public audience of fellow defence chiefs, diplomats and security experts attending the annual Shangri-La Dialogue.

‘This speech is full of hegemony, full of incitement, threats, intimidation,’ Wang was quoted as saying by a reporter from state broadcaster China Central Television.

‘This speech is completely non-constructive and moreover is public, several times criticising China by name, and these kinds of accusations are completely without basis, without reason,’ Wang said.

BDST: 1621 HRS, MAY 31, 2014