Acting Pentagon Secretary Patrick Shanahan has come out swinging against Beijing in new blistering statements issued on Saturday at Asia's premier defense summit, the Shangri-La Dialogue conference, saying the United States will no longer "tiptoe" around Beijing on a range of contentious issues like rampant technology theft and Chinese aggression in the South China Sea surrounding its expansionist "man-made island" projects. 

"We're not going to ignore Chinese behavior and I think in the past people have kind of tiptoed around that," the Defense chief said in response to a question following his main remarks, according to Reuters.

He slammed regional "actors" engaged in "influence operations" and theft of trade secrets, as well as militarizing disputed areas, which ultimately "destabilize the region".