In his offices a short walk from Zhongnanhai, the Chinese Communist party’s leadership compound in central Beijing, vice-premier Liu He maintains a large collection of photos taken with foreign VIPs.

According to foreign government officials and diplomats who have visited President Xi Jinping’s most trusted economic adviser regularly since his boss assumed power in late 2012, the photos are often rotated — pictures of Mr Liu with European dignitaries displayed for European visitors, and pictures of the vice-premier with American dignitaries hung on the walls for American visitors.

But, these people add, one picture in Mr Liu’s collection is always on display. It shows the vice-premier engrossed in conversation with Henry Kissinger.