The commanders of two Australian frigates conducting live-fire exercises with the Chinese navy have said tensions over the South China Sea were not influencing the visit.

Two warships, HMAS Stuart and HMAS Arunta, are spending three days at a major Chinese naval port at Zhanjiang, in Guangdong province.

The port is home to the Chinese navy's southern fleet of warships, which are responsible for patrolling China's southern waters.

As far as Beijing is concerned, those waters include almost the entire South China Sea, a claim not recognised by the United States, which this past week sailed a warship near a Chinese-made island to assert freedom of navigation.

The mission set off a major diplomatic rift between Beijing and Washington, and Australia's Defence Minister Marise Payne expressed strong support for the US move.

The Royal Australian Navy said that stance has not affected the visit to China.

"It's business as usual for us. We're not here to do anything with that," HMAS Arunta's Commander Cameron Steil said.

"This has been planned for a long time. It makes no difference what's going on with that.

"We're here to do a job and get on and build that relationship and our understanding with the PLAN [People's Liberation Army Navy]."

The visit includes a series of exercises by the two navies, including live fire drills, which were first carried out between the Royal Australian Navy and the PLAN in 2010.

"This is very small scale using close-range weapons that we would use for anti-piracy, anti-terrorism, counter asymmetric threat-type operations," Commander Steil said.

Search and rescue is also in focus, building upon the cooperation the two navies had during the search for Malaysia Airlines MH370 in the Indian Ocean.

"We learnt a lot of lessons from that experience," HMAS Stuart's Commander Aaron Nye said.

"We're keen to build on that relationship.

"Obviously, [regarding the recent] events within the region — we don't want to be distracted by those, and we're keen to move forward on a relationship that's built on trust and mutual respect."

The visit is part of a broader Asian deployment which has seen the two warships make port calls in the Philippines, Japan and South Korea.

After leaving China, the two frigates will cruise through the South China Sea towards Malaysia, and will make a further stop in Indonesia before returning to their bases in Perth and Sydney.