PM slams China over disputed waters

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has criticised China's actions in the disputed South China Sea as counterproductive.

There was too much at stake in disturbing more than 40 years of regional tranquillity, and it was undeniable China's actions were creating anxieties and raising tensions among its neighbours, he said.

"They are therefore counterproductive, regardless of the legal merits on which we do not express a view nor make a claim," Mr Turnbull told the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Wednesday.