In Beijing, the all-important Third Plenum, a summit that takes place just twice a decade, has just concluded.

And what a contrast. While Americans have been subjected to a rhetoric-laden, chaotic and violent lead-in to this year’s election, China’s supreme rulers have just concluded the forum with a self-congratulatory memo that delivered a “highly positive assessment” about everything undertaken by President Xi Jinping.

Missing from the communique, however, was any real mention of the problems plaguing China’s economy, let alone any serious measures to alleviate them.

Growth is slowing at an alarming pace. The most recent figures, for the three months to the end of June, were the worst in five quarters while consumer prices again threaten to tip into negative territory.