For the past five years the choice of a meeting with either Chinese Premier Li Keqiang or Liu He, a low-profile economic adviser to President Xi Jinping, was no choice at all.

Ever since Mr Xi became general secretary of the party in 2012, discerning Chinese officials and foreign dignitaries have beaten a path to Mr Liu’s offices at a Chinese Communist party “leading group” responsible for advising the president on financial and economic matters. When it came to discussions on these subjects, a meeting with Mr Liu was the next best thing to a meeting with Mr Xi.

During President Xi’s first five-year term in office, Mr Liu was only a member of the party’s Central Committee — composed of its 200 most senior officials — and a vice-minister at China’s planning ministry. But operating out of his leading group’s offices in central Beijing, he exercised more influence over economic and financial policies than Mr Li, who is technically the party’s second highest ranking official.