An official Chinese read-out said the summit meeting in Beijing that ended on April 16th reflected the strong ties that bind the world’s second- and third-largest economies. A morning of talks with Xi Jinping, China’s president, punctuated by a comradely stroll in the garden and ending in a cordial lunch, seemed to have marked a friendly climax to the three-day visit to China by Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor.