Hank Paulson, the US Treasury secretary, acknowledged on Wednesday that the fall-out from the subprime crisis in the US had “no doubt” given the Chinese “pause” about the benefits of financial liberalisation.

Mr Paulson was speaking in Beijing, where he is meeting Chinese leaders, including Hu Jintao, the president, to prepare for the next round of the top-level dialogue between the two countries. This will be held in Washington in June.