In late November, Lou Jiwei, the chairman of China’s new sovereign wealth fund, said publicly that it would take up to a year before the fund was fully operational and ready to make large offshore investments.

But just a few weeks later, at 2am on Wednesday, China Investment Corporation signed a deal in New York to pay $5bn (£2.5bn, €3.5bn) for nearly 10 per cent of Morgan Stanley, just before the Wall Street stalwart announced a $9.4bn writedown and the first quarterly loss in its 73-year history.