The accidental expert

Jonathan Fenby believes there are only two men who can get the world out of the current economic crisis. The 66-year-old, who was in Beijing for the Bookworm Literary Festival, said how United States president Barack Obama and China president Hu Jintao get on at the London G20 Summit could prove pivotal to the fate of us all. "I think the relationship between Hu and Obama is undoubtedly the most important relationship for the world right now."

Having breakfast in the new boutique Hotel G in Sanlitun, Fenby, dressed casually in a polo shirt, has the genial affability of someone about to go and play a round of golf, rather than that of an astute political commentator.

As a former editor of The Observer in the UK and of Hong Kong's South China Morning Post (SCMP), before becoming a leading authority on China, he has his own front row view of many of the world's major political events.