When George Osborne, the UK chancellor, stepped out in front of the world’s media in Beijing on October 15 to announce that China had granted the UK an allocation of Rmb80bn ($13bn) under its renminbi qualified foreign institutional investors programme, a quota system enabling renminbi holders to invest directly in mainland China, his grin was as broad as a Cheshire cat’s.

He had achieved the objective of enabling London to be the first location outside greater China (read Hong Kong) to have such an allocation. It was seen also as cementing the improving relationship between the UK and China, while demonstrating London’s desire to be the global financial centre of the world.

In Singapore on October 22, during a visit to the city-state by the Chinese vice-premier, the managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Ravi Menon, announced they too had secured an RQFII allocation, amounting to Rmb50bn.