Visits to China by foreign leaders are tightly choreographed and meticulously planned affairs, even by the usual standards of international diplomacy.

But the chaotic nature of Donald Trump’s White House and his request to delay a planned visit to China in the wake of his decision to attack Iran are widely believed to be causing increasing frustration in Beijing.

Sun Chenghao, a fellow at Tsinghua University’s Centre for International Security and Strategy, said Trump kept changing his reasons for the delay – first linking it to China’s willingness to help ease the blockade, then saying it was because of logistics.

He said this might lead Beijing to conclude “that the problem lies in the internal coordination chaos on the US side and a failure to separate crisis management from summit preparations”.