Does Justin Trudeau realise how desperate his China love-in looks?

Whatever the reason behind Obama not getting the red carpet treatment in Hangzhou, there’s one leader who was guaranteed it: ‘Little Potato’. Or, as you might know him, Justin Trudeau. The pronunciation of Trudeau sounds similar to the Mandarin word for potato, and Chinese media’s primary frame of reference for him is through his father Pierre (Big Potato was friendly with China’s communist leadership years before the rest of the West felt ready to engage). Their other reference point is that he is the handsome ‘APEC hottie’, so perhaps Hot Little Potato is more accurate.

His predecessor Stephen Harper, who stepped down as an MP last week, would never have earned such an affectionate nickname. That’s partly because of his style, or lack of: Trudeau did more populist photo ops and selfies in his first month as PM (including a Vogue shoot) as Harper did in nearly nine years. But it was also because of his substance: Harper was known to be Sino-sceptic.