Chinese president Xi Jinping told US president-elect Donald Trump yesterday that co-operation between the two countries was the “only correct choice”, in the first conversation between the two men since the US election.

The words, while standard Chinese diplomatic fare, were the first effort by Beijing to bridge the dramatic divide that threatens to open up between China and the US after months of scorched-earth campaigning by Mr Trump. The president-elect’s advisers have been playing down fears over trade tensions, saying the new administration will be more focused on tax cuts and infrastructure spending.

But on the campaign trail Mr Trump all but promised a trade war, threatening to impose a 45 per cent tariff on Chinese imports. He also promised to abandon the Paris climate change agreement that President Barack Obama and Mr Xi jointly ratified in September in a showcase of Sino-American co-operation.