The Government’s keenness to get on with Beijing has been evident, not least in the tasteless decision to beam red light over the London Eye, Somerset House and the Royal Aca- demy. That is a misconceived tribute to a country whose human rights abuses are still a point of deep division with other governments.

But for all the desire of Britain and China to get on with each other, the list of small tussles between them is long, and resolutions have been elusive. The agenda for Tony Blair’s talks with Mr Hu will be dominated by simmering trade rows.

Britain cannot offer to lift the EU-China arms embargo as it would like to do. China’s passage of a law allowing it to take military action against Taiwan if it moved towards independence has angered the United States and Japan, and put paid to that.

Spain and Germany, Mr Hu’s next hosts, had been keen to see the ban go; but Angela Merkel, Germany’s new Chancellor, is more pro-American in her instincts than her predecessor and less likely to push for that provocative step.

The “bra wars” dispute between the EU and China has been resolved only clumsily, through the fudging of quotas to shield European manufacturers temporarily from competition. Britain is not keen on taking either of these rows forward in the final two months of its presidency of the EU.

Britain and France are also so bitterly at odds over whether the EU should offer to cut farm subsidies at the next Doha Round world trade talks in December that any broader trade discussion with China may prove futile. The more fruitful ground may be in appealing to China’s sense of itself as a growing international power, and asking for help in solving some of the world’s frontline diplomatic problems.

The nuclear ambitions of North Korea and Iran head the list. On the first of those, China has been increasingly prepared to try to cool the crisis. It has signed a pact on economic and technical co-operation (details as yet unspecified). Another round of the six-country talks on Pyongyang’s nuclear work will start tomorrow in Beijing. But Iran? Here, British hopes of Chinese co-operation may clash with China’s need for energy, and the web of energy deals it has already struck with Tehran. China and Russia have both looked coolly on US and European pressure to take Iran to the UN Security Council.

None of this amounts to a disaster for the state visit. But nor does it add up to progress.

No doubt, Blair and Mr Hu will sign many small testaments to cultural and commercial co-operation today. But for all the goodwill, it is hard to find broad tracts of common ground — and that’s without mentioning the trade wars.

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