It raise the spectre of foreign, trade and defence ministers being grounded in the capital, and of Ms Gillard's overseas trips to be limited to major meetings of world leaders or visits to major trading partners, our correspondent adds.

BBC: Australia parliament opens after knife-edge election

In the month leading up to the Shangri-La Dialogue, General Liang had visited Washington, DC (the first Chinese defence minister to do so in nine years) and attended a meeting of South-East Asian defence ministers in the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh.

ECONOMIST: Military diplomacy