According to an academic study, countries that host the Dalai Lama tend to see their trade ties with China suffer - but only for the following two years. Poland, whose leaders last met the Dalai in 2008, is now seeing its relationship with China improve, as the study would suggest.

A high-level Chinese delegation is visiting the country this week, headed by senior political advisor Jia Qinglin (pictured, with Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski). Although Poland may lack the natural resources of Africa and Latin America, it does have three key attractions for Chinese investors.

One is the enormous infrastructure investment that has turned Poland into Europe’s largest building site. Some €67bn ($94bn) in EU structural funds are pouring into the country during the current 2007-2013 EU budget cycle, spurring it to make up centuries of poor roads and railways.