To my alarm, I read that a British diplomat given a teapot as a gift by Chinese officials was stupid enough to use the item regularly until it smashed, revealing the inevitable bug hidden inside. What’s strange is that the danger of Chinese functionaries bearing gifts is well known and, for those civil servants not naturally equipped with common sense, it ought to be well flagged.

I know of one other such case. Some 20 years ago, a senior British official was presented with various gifts when visiting China, one of which was a rather splendid astrolabe. He duly passed them all to the security services for checking. The astrolabe, they found, did indeed contain a listening device.

Our official considered chucking the gift,