FRESH FROM his love-in in the States, where he was showered with praise by Barack Obama and every other Irish-American he encountered, the Taoiseach yesterday jetted off to Shanghai to spread the Endamania.

Kenny is leading a trade delegation of 90 Irish companies in China this week in a bid to build on the progress made during the recent visit to Ireland of the emerging superpower’s vice president Xi Jinping.

But will the Chinese be as smitten with Kenny as the Americans, who perhaps got a touch carried away with St Patrick’s Day euphoria?

Fortunately for the Taoiseach, Fianna Fáil set a pretty low bar when it came to Sino-Irish relations.

In 2008, former trade minister John McGuinness said in Shanghai how pleased he was to be in Singapore.

In 2011, Brian Cowen caused major offence when he cancelled a trade mission to China at the last minute. Then there was current party leader Micheál Martin’s unfortunate attempt at a Chinese accent, for which he had to apologise.

Thanks to Kenny’s predecessors, all he has to do is turn up, remember what country he’s in and avoid any temptation towards mimicry and – by comparison – he’ll look like a diplomatic mastermind.