Chief Executive Mark Jenkins flying to China to discuss plans with owner Guochuan Lai

Jenkins is jetting out to the Far East with finance director Lee Cooper and chief commercial officer Simon King.

They will provide a progress report to Lai and his associates from Palm, the eco-town development company Albion’s owner is affiliated to.

But the main reason behind the visit is to discuss the financial and commercial realities of next season.

Lai is keen to find out the differences between winning promotion to the Premier League and a second season in the Championship.

Albion are currently in fourth place, seven points off the top two and automatic promotion, although they remain in the play-off spots.

Should the Baggies fail to bounce back at the first opportunity, their parachute payments will dwindle from £41.5million this season to an estimated £34m.

If they win promotion, they are set to receive more than £100m in prize money from the Premier League next season.

Jenkins regularly flies out to China to deliver progress reports to Albion’s majority shareholder.

However, Lai is not a regular visitor to The Hawthorns, and has attended just one game this season.

He is represented in England by executive director Ke Xu, who is based at Albion’s training ground.

Cooper joined the club in 2016 and was appointed finance director in August 2017. He oversees all areas of finance at the club.

King was appointed commercial officer in February 2017 after seven years in the same role at Hull City. He has also previously worked for Stockport County.