Calling themselves “a pair of harmonious doves” and “yin and yang”, UK plc’s two top-drawer sales representatives have had a spiffing week in China. Headlines at home on the trip by George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer, and Boris Johnson, mayor of London, told of one step after another to boost Chinese investment into Britain, make the capital a prime centre for renminbi trading, open the way for more activity by Chinese banks and forge links in the brave new world of digital technology.

Though the two men may vie one day for the leadership of the Tory party, they were at one in courting the leaders of the world’s last major state ruled by a Communist party. So no mention of politics and keep quiet on human rights. After all, when Prime Minister David Cameron and Nick Clegg, his Liberal Democrat deputy, met the Dalai Lama last year it landed London in Beijing’s doghouse for 18 months. This week was all business.

To believe the spin machine surrounding the trip, Britain has no equal in attracting cash from the world’s second-biggest economy. A Chinese group is to provide the money for the first nuclear station built Britain since 1995. China Investment Corporation, the sovereign wealth fund, has 8.7 per cent of Thames Water. China is invested in Heathrow and is likely to pump in cash if a new airport materialises in the Thames Estuary, not to mention the High Speed 2 rail line, wind farms and a new sewer network for London. The Industrial and Commercial Bank of China is putting ￡650m into a business district at Manchester airport, which should generate 16,000 jobs over 15 years. The Chinese property developers, Dalian Wanda and Advanced Business Park, have deals to develop London’s South Bank, while Ping An Insurance Group has bought the capital’s Lloyd’s building.