American and Chinese presidents do not really know how to talk to each other. They are like computers running on different operating systems.” That was the verdict once offered to me by a US official, who has watched many US-China summits from close quarters. So while both sides stress that last week’s meeting between Presidents Xi Jinping and Barack Obama was constructive, I have my doubts. For China and America have profoundly different ways of looking at the world. I see five big contrasts.

1. Cyclical v linear: China has a very long history. The US has a very short history. Mr Xi likes to point out that “China is an ancient civilisation. We have 5,000 years of history.” The US, on the other hand, has been in existence for less than 250 years. This difference in perspective has a profound effect on the way that the two countries’ leaderships think about the world. Broadly speaking, the Chinese think in cyclical terms, since Chinese history is defined by the rise and fall of dynasties. Good periods that can last centuries are followed by bad periods that can also last for centuries. By contrast, ever since 1776, the US has basically only travelled in one direction — towards greater national power and personal prosperity. As a result, US politicians tend to think of history in a linear fashion and to believe in progress as the natural order.

2. Universalism v particularism: America’s founding creed is that “all men are created equal” and have the same unalienable rights. From this flows the instinctive American belief in universal values such as freedom and democracy — that should, ideally, be applied everywhere. The Chinese, by contrast, are particularists. They believe that what is right for China is not necessarily right for the world, and vice versa. This difference in mentality underpins America and China’s contrasting approaches to intervention in foreign conflicts and the protection of human rights .