Scott Morrison has described his meeting with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang as "honest" and "candid" but bristled at suggestions the talks were "stern".
The prime minister sat down with Premier Li on the sidelines of the East Asia Summit in Thailand, after many months of diplomatic spot fires over Beijing's human rights abuses and attempts at foreign interference.
"There's an honest acknowledgement that we're two pretty different countries," Mr Morrison told reporters in Bangkok on Monday.
"We're a liberal democracy and they're a communist party state. We're not seeking to adopt their system, and they're not seeking to adopt ours."
The meeting came just days after China publicly rebuked Australia's foreign minister for daring to call out its human rights record.
It has been three years since an Australian prime minister has held an official meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Mr Morrison sidestepped questions about whether securing such a meeting would send an important signal in repairing strained Australia-China relations.
"I'm not one who is big on symbolism, I'm big on actions and the practical value of the relationship," he said.
The prime minister signalled he raised thorny issues during the 45-minute meeting with Mr Li, including the detention in Beijing of Chinese-Australian writer Yang Hengjun.
"We deal with lots of sensitive issues in these discussions, as we did again, and that's the nature of the candid relationship that we have," he said.
"But we deal with those in private discussions."
