George Bush speaks to the press during his visit to Mainz, Germany. Photograph: Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Once again, the press coverage of George Bush's visit to Europe has illustrated different attitudes on each side of the Atlantic.
In Europe, the focus is, for the most part, on the state of relations with Washington and the people at the heart of them: the headline on the Times' world pages reads "Bush and Chirac reopen wounds", Le Monde has a piece on the US president and Vladimir Putin, and the Financial Times reports that Mr Bush's Brussels charm offensive does not mean US-EU divisions are over.
In the US, concentration is less on the relationship itself than the issues that rock it. The New York Times homes in on one of the most contentious for the White House – the EU's plan to lift its arms embargo against China.
In European capitals, the top level argument is that the post-Tiananmen Square ban is no longer justified, but the bloc also anticipates more trade with China if it makes Beijing happy. The US is completely against a transfer of technology that could shift the balance of relations between China and its allies in Taiwan.
This is not about EU, however. The dispute's real centre of gravity hangs somewhere between China and the US as they vie for Europe's support – another example of what Joshua Kurlantizick describes in the latest issue of Prospect as China's growing soft power.
He is not a fan of the country's rulers, but argues that careful diplomacy and economic might – compared to the Bush administration's emphasis on terrorism - is seeing a number of countries "choose" Beijing over Washington, especially those in which China's authoritarian system is more appealing to the elite than the US's rights-based democracy. Kurlantizick is worried at the potential spread of China's political values, saying:
These are not values one would wish on the world, on Asia, or on ordinary Chinese. As the world's largest authoritarian nation, China is an example to developing countries across the globe, just as the US, at its best, is an example of democracy. Asian, African and Latin American leaders come to China to study its economic boom, growing cultural influence and party system. At home, many of these leaders trumpet China's ability to blend economic growth and stability - a stability accomplished in part by harsh repression. If China's soft power grows, and its reach increases, more countries will choose this authoritarian model.
His remedy is for the US to "offer its friends more than just counterterrorism" and work on its own soft power, lowering trade barriers, opening new avenues for foreign investment and letting more students from the developing world into its universities.
There are, after all, more countries in the world and more relationships between them than those with shores facing across the north Atlantic.
