The deterioration in relations between Beijing and Canberra now appears to be affecting even the most China-friendly voices in Australia, with trips to the country organised by Bob Carr's Australia-China Relations Institute allegedly being hindered by punitive visa rejections.

Mr Carr, director of the institute, revealed the Chinese government has denied visas to about five Australian journalists for a trip funded by his think tank, a hindrance the former Labor foreign minister said he has not faced before.

"I'm very disappointed that, on this occasion, for the first occasion, we weren't able to get a visa and, as I put on Thursday night to his excellency the Chinese ambassador, if the delay in getting the approval was part of a freeze in the relationship, then I'd have to accept that I guess," Mr Carr told ABC radio on Tuesday morning.

Bob Carr, director of the Australia-China Relations Institute. Credit:Louie Douvis

"But if it were a bureaucratic challenge... I said I'd like him to sort it out. But it has turned out to be more than a bureaucratic challenge."