There’s a telling photograph of the chancellor which shows her sitting attentively, briefcase tucked on her chair, while the Chinese vice president holds forth in front of a classical landscape mural.

Chinese President Xi Jinping will not attend President-elect Donald Trump’s swearing-in ceremony, but he is sending Vice President Han Zheng as his special representative.

Increases in the Government’s borrowing costs have sparked concern that the Chancellor will be unable to meet her debt and spending targets, requiring either tax rises or deeper spending cuts when she delivers a fiscal statement at the end of March.

Rachel Reeves's trip to China – the first by a British chancellor since 2019 - was always going to be controversial. In recent years Conservative governments have been keeping Beijing at arm's length - amid concern about espionage, the situation in Hong Kong, and the treatment of the Uyghurs.

Ms Reeves hailed the trip as a ‘significant milestone’ in Labour’s re-engagement with China, saying she had agreed deals worth £600 million over the next five years

Rachel Reeves' visit to Beijing is "perverse, wrong, misguided, and unhelpful" and shows the lengths to which this Government is willing to risk national security to bail out its flagging economy, experts warn.

Exclusive: Former cabinet minister Sir Iain Duncan Smith said that the chancellor’s trip to Beijing was a desperate move ‘because she has trashed the economy’

The Treasury said a stable relationship with China would support economic growth - but critics said the chancellor should have stayed at home to address the market turmoil.

Chancellor defends decision to travel to Beijing where she is seeking to revive relations that have been frozen since 2019

Reeves will meet with her Chinese counterpart Vice Premier He Lifeng in Beijing and is being accompanied by Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey

Chinese Vice President Han Zheng attend a meeting with Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves at the ... Chinese President Xi Jinping delivers a New Year message on Tuesday, Dec ...

Guidance for private security industry warns they will be breaking the law if they deliberately work for hostile state actors