Dear Prime Minister Cameron,

Though brief, your visit to Beijing on Tuesday on your way to the G20 in Seoul could be the most important foreign trip you have made since getting to Downing Street – if you want to make it so. You may be tempted to focus on bilateral issues. But, if I were you, I would leave that to your ministerial companions, to explore specific ways in which a medium-sized European power can establish stronger links with the world’s second biggest economy.

Rather, you should take the opportunity to question the leaders in Beijing about how they see the challenges confronting their country as it seeks to move beyond the cheap labour, cheap capital model launched three decades ago, with its dependence on exports and high levels of fixed asset investment.