ASIA: "Taiwan's president and China: Sorry, the offer's closed; A truce in the chequebook war," The Economist, 27 June 2009.

The growing détente appears to include a moratorium on checkbook diplomacy, as in, I, Beijing, will buy your agreement to switch recognition from Taiwan.

Big test will be the Vatican, which could do some real good here by pioneering dual recognition in a non-threatening way.