Much is often made of the contrasting styles that differentiate the United States and Europe, but watching the two approaches play out in China has been a very enlightening experience. Last November, Europe’s great and good were in Nanjing, an eastern city which was formerly China’s capital, to discuss the usual bilateral issues with their Chinese counterparts at the first EU-China summit for two years. This time the Europeans were angry about the strength of China’s currency, the renminbi or yuan, which was making it difficult for European goods to compete with artificially cheap Chinese products.

This was a muscular deployment indeed – European Commission President José Manuel Barroso; Swedish Prime Minister and rotating European Council President Fredrik Reinfeldt; the President of the Eurogroup, Jean-Claude Juncker; European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet and European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, Joaquin Almunia. European democratic representation at its best, as you would expect from China’s biggest trading partner. Premier Wen Jiabao, the second-in-command in the government, was representing the Chinese, who are emboldened by the fact that they did not blow all their money on a house-buying spree and these days are keen for diplomatic muscle to match their considerable financial strength.

What emerges from watching the state visits by the two powers is that Europe is a much more sensible place than America. Its leaders are approachable, from diverse backgrounds in the European spectrum, and not inclined to displays of great drama. Security in China for the Europeans was fairly low-key, if at times bizarre – journalists were brought to an outlying hotel some distance from where most of them were staying, and also far from where the main events of the summit were taking place, and x-rayed, before being put back on the bus and driven to the venue. A highlight was a glossy insert into the local newspaper showing foreigners engaging in all that Nanjing had to offer. All good, clean fun.

A couple of weeks earlier, I had watched the US delegation arrive in Beijing for Barack Obama’s meeting with President Hu Jintao, the commander-in-chief in China and Obama’s direct equivalent. Obama arrived in Air Force One, before climbing into his armour-plated car, Chinese flag and Stars and Stripes flapping importantly, to drive to the Great Hall of the People for meetings. One was constantly on the look-out for Kiefer Sutherland in his Jack Bauer role from the TV-show 24, eager to protect the president from some escalating threat. Hillary Rodham Clinton was in town too, but she kept a low profile so as not to steal Mr President’s limelight.

After the meetings during both visits, journalists were allowed to sit and listen to the leaders read out statements, though no questions were allowed.