As he wrapped up a three-day visit to Beijing on Wednesday, Barack Obama, US president, hailed a climate change agreement between the world’s two biggest polluters as “historic” and a “major milestone”.
But Mr Obama’s joint press conference with China’s President Xi Jinping was not broadcast or reported in China and very nearly did not happen at all because Chinese officials took offence at the suggestion Mr Xi should answer questions from the media.
After weeks of wrangling, the two sides agreed to take a single question each, with the New York Times told to direct its question to Mr Obama and the English-language China Daily given a prepared question to ask Mr Xi.