By the time the World Economic Forum in Davos had closed last week, both Xi Jinping, president of China, and US president Donald Trump had laid out their blueprints for a global future. Mr Xi did not attend the event in person, but many observers, particularly in China, discerned the lingering influence of his address in 2017 on this year’s choice of theme at Davos: “Creating a Shared Future in a Fractured World.”

The paths Messrs Xi and Trump charted converge at some points, but for the most part run in strict parallel.

In his speech at Davos, Mr Trump promised to “put America first”, just as “the leaders of other countries should put their country first”. There was an unsettling echo in the president’s remarks of the “beggar-my-neighbour” policies of the 1930s, in which countries sought to increase their trade balances at the expense of others. By contrast, a year earlier Mr Xi had called on world leaders to “create a better world and deliver better lives for our peoples” by working together.