Cannons blasted the frigid air of Tiananmen Square with a 21-gun salute last week, as China feted Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak during a five-day visit.Mr Najib inspected a regimental colourguard on Tuesday before being whisked into the Great Hall of the People to sign $34bn in trade and investment agreements.

During a pause in proceedings, Liu Zhenmin, Chinese vice foreign minister, took a moment to reassure the Malaysian media that this was not the way it looked. “There is no such thing as using our financial muscle to improve ties,” he replied, stony-faced, to a question on whether China was exercising chequebook diplomacy.

But it was hard to hide the glee on the Chinese side: back-to-back visits by Philippine and Malaysian leaders have marked a moment of rare foreign policy success for Beijing, which has spent more time recently alienating most of its Southeast Asian neighbours with an aggressive pursuit of maritime hegemony in the South China Sea.