Beijing: It is not uncommon for China's state-owned media to editorialise around the visit of some foreign leader, but the sharp tone and particular timing of Thursday's China Daily article was uncommonly direct. Threatening even.

The message to an Australian Prime Minister arriving that very morning for his first official visit, was unmistakable: Be very careful. Opposing us on the South China Sea will put the lucrative Australia-China economic relationship in peril. Through its obedient press, Beijing was making a public play. It wanted Malcolm Turnbull to feel intimidated.

Turnbull is new in the job, but he's been around the block a few times, including in China. And he knows bluff and bluster when he sees it. His assessment? It's all part of the theatre. A complex interplay which is layered with domestic considerations, elaborate posturing, and tactical forays designed to provoke over-reaction or better still, capitulation.