Hank Paulson, the new US Treasury secretary, heads to China on Tuesday to make common cause with the country’s economic reformers, who are on the defensive after sustained attacks on market economics and foreign investment.

Mr Paulson will open his trip with an unusual gesture when he visits Xi Jinping, the party secretary of fast-growing Zhejiang province, a rising star associated with the technocratic wing of China’s Communist party, in Hangzhou.