WASHINGTON, July 26 — The United States today accused China of increased "provocations” against rival claimants to territory in the South China Sea and other states operating there.

"There is a clear and upward trend of PRC provocations against South China Sea claimants and other states lawfully operating in the region,” Jung Pak, deputy assistant secretary for East Asia at the US State Department, told a US think tank event, referring to the People’s Republic of China.

Pak told the Centre for Strategic and International Studies that Chinese aircraft had increasingly engaged in unsafe intercepts of Australian aircraft in international airspace above the South China Sea and in three separate incidents in the last few months had challenged marine research and energy exploration activities within the exclusive economic zone of the Philippines. — Reuters