When Liu Shaoqi, then China’s president, visited Indonesia in 1963, his wife Wang Guangmei helped him accomplish his mission. An elegant figure in a traditional Qipao dress, she helped China, poor and shaken by constant political campaigns, project a positive image abroad.

Her high profile came back to haunt her. As her husband was targeted as a “counterrevolutionary” in the Cultural Revolution, modern China’s most brutal political campaign, Ms Wang was paraded on the street in a too-tight Qipao made to look like it was splitting open and a mock necklace made of ping pong balls. She was then jailed for 12 years. Jiang Qing, the last wife of Mao Zedong and one of the few to in effect control China during the Cultural Revolution, was said to have had a hand in Ms Wang’s persecution.

Since then, the concept of first lady has been practically redundant. But Xi Jinping, who is set to assume full power today with the post of president following his ascent to the post of Communist party chief last November, now intends to capitalise on the charisma of his singer wife Peng Liyuan to tackle China’s image problems abroad.