A day after US president Donald Trump announced a new initiative to thwart Beijing’s alleged efforts to “steal” US technology, senior Chinese financial officials and Wall Street bankers sat down for a teleconference.

One participant in the China-US Financial Roundtable, established two years ago at a time of heightened trade tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, said it had been a pretty “generic” forum aimed at “fostering goodwill” and enhancing financial integration between the world’s two largest economies.

But the forum, which convened on October 16 according to four people briefed on the discussions, also highlights a rare positive front in Sino-US relations: finance, as Beijing attempts to speed up market reforms and attract foreign capital.