Prime Minister Tony Abbott has denied it was provocative of his top bureaucrat to say that China was not willing or able to be a global leader.
Prime Minister and Cabinet department secretary Michael Thawley said Australia still needed to depend on America because China gets in the way or out of the way when it comes to global problem solving.
"What we want to do is encourage China to assume a role commensurate with its strength," Mr Abbott told reporters in Williamtown in NSW, adding that the China-led Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank was a good illustration of what China could achieve in a rules based international order.
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