It is believed to be the first time the PLA would operate under Western command in a military exercise, a senior military officer has told Fairfax.

Leaders in Canberra and Washington are coming to the view that China's muscular advances into its maritime periphery cannot be resolved, or reversed, but only managed. They are particularly concerned that lines of emergency communication and co-operation are far less developed with China than they were with the Soviet Union at the height of the Cold War.

Western military leaders welcomed a PLA decision last year to join humanitarian rescue components of the US-led ''Rim of the Pacific'' maritime exercises, which will see the navies of more than 20 nations converge around Hawaii for warfare drills in July.

And they are likely to welcome the PLA's request - which Fairfax understands was communicated through defence channels last week - to operate in those exercises under the direct command of the Australian navy.

"China has a central role to play in contributing to regional stability," Australia's Defence Minster, David Johnston, told Fairfax, while declining to directly comment on the most recent Chinese overture, which is yet to be fully processed through political channels. US ambassador to Canberra John Berry told Fairfax that the US supported Australian co-operation with China generally because it did not view its own relationship with China as a "zero-sum" contest.