Bush's China visit fails to narrow differences

But the closely scripted encounter between Bush and his Chinese hosts seemed to retrace, not narrow, the differences, analysts said.

"Both sides are paying more attention to the relationship and trying to define and shape it," said Jin Canrong, an expert on Chinese-US relations at the People's University of China in Beijing. "But without any urgent issues demanding attention, this visit was always going to be exploratory, not defining."

Bush visited a state-controlled church on Sunday, where he renewed a call for religious freedom in China.

Later that day he lectured China's leaders about the value of liberty and the need for China to loosen currency controls, strengthen intellectual property protection, and close its trade gap with the United States.

While China's leaders sidestepped direct dispute with Bush on these issues, they sent their own message swaddled in diplomatic rhetoric -- that China wants to protect its rising economic and political power, but not confront the United States.

Chinese President Hu Jintao repeated his refrain that China is a "peacefully developing" country whose rising wealth and influence need not threaten other countries.

Hu also promised to work toward a balanced flow of trade between the two countries, and to crack down on commercial "pirates" who illegally copy US films, music, software and patented goods.

China has a massive trade surplus with the United States -- in the first 10 months of this year it shipped $132.5 billion of goods to the United States, while the United States shipped $39.8 billion to China.