Hillary Clinton is on course to raise the $61m in private money needed to build a US pavilion for a trade fair in Shanghai next year, clearing one of the main foreign policy obstacles ahead of Barack Obama's state visit to China next week.

Mrs Clinton, whose first visit as secretary of state was to China, inherited a situation where the US was the only country other than Andorra that had failed to confirm its attendance at the Shanghai Expo – to the chagrin of the Chinese.

America's absence from the fair, running from May to October, was the first issue to be raised by the Chinese when Mrs Clinton visited in February. “The Chinese were very upset,” says Elizabeth Baghley, who heads Mrs Clinton's office for global partnerships. “When she came back from China she said: “Whatever it takes, this matters to China and to US business and we are going to get this done.”