It is fitting that Danone should choose the backdrop of National Day, China’s carefully choreographed celebration of unity, to make an exit from various joint ventures with Hangzhou Wahaha, the country’s leading drinks group. After two and a half years of mostly fruitless legal battles, only small victories are left.

Both sides describe an “amicable” settlement, putting an end to at least 30 separate disputes between the French food group and its Chinese partner. But the partnership has been anything but.