Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth on Saturday took aim at Beijing over an increase in "destabilizing actions" in the South China Sea and committed to support Southeast Asian countries with technology to help them respond jointly to Chinese threats.

On a second day in Kuala Lumpur packed with meetings that included multilateral talks with allies Australia, Japan and the Philippines, Hegseth proposed to ASEAN defence ministers the building of shared maritime domain awareness and said China had shown a lack of respect and threatened their territorial sovereignty.

"You live it on the threats we all face from China's aggression and course of actions in the South China Sea and elsewhere," he said.

"We need to develop our joint capabilities to respond, and this includes being able to monitor maritim

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