The era of 'owned by China'

Li's procurement extravaganza will end with a low-carbon flavour in Watford today as Vince Cable gives the 150-strong Chinese delegation a tour of a sustainable housing community. This will bring to a close a four-day visit to the UK, on a trip which has also taken in Germany and Spain and resulted in more than $20bn (£12.8bn) of orders for luxury European items, from wine and olive oil to Mercedes cars.

With the data yesterday showing China's foreign exchange reserves jumped by a record $199bn in the final three months of 2010 to an all-time high of $2.85tn, these shopping excursions are set to become bigger and more frequent.