After President Barack Obama hosted his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for eight hours of talks in California just under a year ago, a senior US official announced that American concerns about cyber theft were now “at the centre of the relationship” between the two countries.

Within hours, Edward Snowden had revealed himself from a Hong Kong hotel room to be the source of a series of leaks about the National Security Agency – and, in the process, dramatically undercut the Obama administration’s push to press China on hacking.

The administration tried to regain the initiative yesterday by announcing indictments against five members of the Chinese military for stealing trade secrets from US companies. “This is 21st century burglary,” said David Hickton, US attorney for the western district of Pennsylvania.