US air force one touches down today in the ancient city of Xi'an at 7.30 p.m. local time (12.30 p.m. Irish time), bringing President Clinton on the first visit by a US head of state to China since the crushing of pro-democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square on June 4th, 1989.
Mr Clinton hopes to create momentum for democratic change in the world's most populous country, increase the strategic co-operation between the two powers and hold an "open and honest" dialogue on divisive issues like human rights.
Before boarding the plane for the 18-hour flight from Washington he told reporters he also planned to press during his summit meeting with the Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, on Saturday for the two countries to stop targeting nuclear missiles at each other - a largely symbolic act, as missiles can be re-targeted by computers in seconds.
The Chinese will be seeking a commitment from Mr Clinton to decrease arms sales to Taiwan, and to oppose publicly independence for Taiwan, which Beijing regards as a breakaway province. Taiwan is at the core of bilateral relations between the US and China, the Foreign Minister, Mr Tang Jiaxaun, told US reporters in Beijing.
Mr Clinton's visit, which has drawn fire from anti-China critics in the US Congress, has been dogged by fresh controversy. Chinese authorities have embarrassed the US President by withdrawing visas from three reporters working for Radio Free Asia who planned to travel with him.
The journalists - two US citizens, Patricia Hindman and Feng Xiaoming, and an Indian national, Arin Basu - were first given visas for the trip on Friday and told a day later by Chinese embassy staff in Washington that they had been withdrawn. Radio Free Asia, created by Congress, began beaming Chinese-language programmes to China in September 1996.
Mr Clinton said: "We will protest it. We hope they will reconsider it," but Chinese officials said yesterday the matter was closed. The Chinese government has itself been embarrassed by the leaking of a letter from a former communist party leader, Mr Zhao Ziyang, in which he made an impassioned plea for the party to use the occasion of the US President's visit to admit the 1989 crackdown was a mistake.
Mr Zhao, now 78, said Mr Clinton's visit "marks a turn for the better in Sino-US relations, but the United States and the whole of the West have again and again raised the June 4th problem and the human rights problem of China."
He said China's June 4th problem "is one of the biggest human rights problem this century" and rather than let it become an obstacle to international relations, the Chinese should resolve it themselves voluntarily.
Mr Zhao was Communist Party General Secretary at the time of Tiananmen Square and has been under house arrest since 1989 for sympathising with the students.
When Mr Clinton arrives in Xi'an he will be welcomed in the manner of one of the emperors who ruled a powerful China from this city when Europe was in the Dark Ages. Eight hundred actors in costumes from the Tang Dynasty will light his path with flaming torches to the South Gate of the walled city, where he will be welcomed on a 600-ft red carpet, escorted by 75 soldiers on each side.
He will be greeted by the mayor of Xi'an and given the keys of the city of three million people in central China, which once vied with Constantinople and Rome as one of the great cities of the world. Tomorrow he will visit the fabled terra-cotta warriors, one hour's drive outside the city.
The White House said Mr Clinton was visiting Xi'an before Beijing to pay tribute to the glory of imperial China, but the detour allows the US President to avoid having to start his trip in the highly-charged location of Tiananmen Square, where the official welcome by President Jiang takes place on Saturday.
At Xi'an's South Gate yesterday, teams of workers were installing floodlights and hanging red paper lanterns and police were deployed in large numbers to keep order. A Xi'an political activist, Mr Ma Xiaoming, said police had stepped up surveillance of people who might use the occasion to stage a protest. The city has been hard hit by layoffs in recent months and protesters have staged dozens of small demonstrations against unemployment and corruption. Chinese police yesterday detained a wanted dissident in the southern city of Guilin, which Mr Clinton is due to visit on July 2nd.
Eight police took Mr Li Xiao long (34), a member of the now-defunct dissident group "Human Rights Voice", into custody from his home, his wife, Ms Jiang Hangxia, said. Other dissidents have been warned to stay away from cities the President is visiting, including Xi'an, Beijing and Shanghai.
Alice Hung adds from Taipei:
Taiwan opponents of union with the communist mainland started protests yesterday, reflecting growing anxiety on the island on the eve of President Clinton's visit to China.
Dozens of activists, mostly from independence-minded opposition parties, handed a petition with more than 10,000 signatures to the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington's unofficial diplomatic outpost.
Activists fear Beijing will use Mr Clinton's visit to pressure Taiwan to accept reunion with the mainland under a "one country, two systems" model pioneered in Hong Kong.