A visitor from outer space hovering over Beijing at the weekend could have been excused for getting the wrong end of the stick. Down below were two leaders who seemed to be disagreeing on central issues. Senior aides to the visiting president were openly criticising the host country's human rights record in strong terms while security men of the host country were detaining dissidents who just wanted to talk to reporters.
Surely, the man from Mars would have concluded as he listened to the words wafting up from the Great Hall of the People, the occasion was turning into at best a stand-off, or more likely a confrontation. The visitors might list dozens of agreements, but none was big enough to signal any major progress. There was nothing here for the history books. Even the announcement that China would no longer aim nuclear warheads at American cities was tempered by the knowledge that it takes only a matter of minutes to re-target a missile.
But then, when he glided unseen into the Great Hall below, the Martian could only have been amazed by the smiles and the laughter and the bonhomie between the two men. At one point, captured in our front page photograph yesterday, they looked for all the world like a stand-up comedy duo with Bill Clinton pointing at his partner as he made a joke, and Jiang Zemin cracking up across the stage.
The decision to broadcast the exchanges between the two leaders live on Chinese television was a striking sign of the times. All China could see the disagreements and the smiles - in contrast with the way in which few US television viewers will have watched the proceedings since the time difference meant transmission began at midnight East Coast time.
It could not, of course, be all laughs. Both from his own convictions and because of the domestic criticism of his visit to China, President Clinton had to speak out on certain issues. Equally, President Jiang had to stick to basic positions that define Beijing's view of China's sovereignty. But neither let that get in the way of the real business of this summit.
Being from a different part of the universe, the man from Mars would have missed what really mattered. Both sides decided in advance that the Clinton visit would work - just as they will do with Zhu Rongji's visit to the US.