Long after President Clinton has returned to the United States, millions of people in China will remember and talk about his trip here for one reason alone, the astonishing decision of the Communist Chinese government to televise live the press conference held by Mr Clinton and the Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, after their summit meeting on Saturday.
For the first time Chinese television viewers saw and heard open debate about two forbidden topics, the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen Square in 1989 and the possible return of the exiled Dalai Lama to Tibet. And the interlocutors were none other than their President and the leader of the United States, speaking to each other in a friendly and civil manner.
For Mr Clinton it was an answer to the critics of his visit. He became the first western leader in nine years to be welcomed in Tiananmen Square, and then to condemn China openly on its own television network for crushing the 1989 pro-democracy movement.
"Chinese citizens of all ages had raised their voices for democracy," Mr Clinton said in an opening statement at a press conference on a podium bedecked with flowers in the Great Hall of the People.
"For all of our agreements, we still disagree about the meaning of what happened then. I believe and the American people believe that the use of force and the tragic loss of life was wrong." President Jiang was just as firm in his reply. "Had the Chinese government not taken the resolute measures then we could not have enjoyed the stability that we are enjoying today," he stated.
Mr Clinton also said: "I urged President Jiang to assume a dialogue with the Dalai Lama in return for the recognition that Tibet is a part of China and in recognition of the unique cultural and religious heritage of that region. But I also believe that there are many, many Tibetans who still revere the Dalai Lama and view him as their spiritual leader."
He added, drawing a laugh from the Chinese leader: "I have spent time with the Dalai Lama, I believe him to be an honest man, and I believe that if he had a conversation with President Jiang, they would like each other very much."
Mr Jiang replied: "As long as the Dalai Lama recognises Tibet is an inalienable part of China and that Taiwan is a province of China, then the door is open for dialogue and negotiations. I hope the Dalai Lama will make a positive response."
Beijing, he added, already had several channels of communication open to the Dalai Lama, who for years said he seeks only greater autonomy for Tibet.
Mr Jiang went on to argue strongly that China had freed a million serfs from the Dalai Lama's rule and poured investment into the remote region, but he admitted to being baffled by the faith in Tibetan Lama Buddhism shown by some highly-educated people in the West.
"As the President of the People's Republic of China and a member of the Communist Party, I myself am an atheist - but this will by no means affect my respect for religious freedom in Tibet," he said, adding that he would try to learn about the Tibetan Buddhist faith.
The press conference was also broadcast live on radio, and car and taxi-drivers throughout Beijing pulled over to the side of the road to listen to an exchange which could open debate on Tiananmen Square and the Dalai Lama in the coming days.
People spoken to at random in the street yesterday were divided in their opinion of who "won" the arguments, but most thought that President Jiang had acquitted himself very well.
"This was progress," said Ms Wang Lingyun, mother of the activist, Mr Wang Dan, now in exile in the United States. Mr Dai Qing, an environmental activist imprisoned after 1989, said: "It lifted a weight from my heart to hear this. This is the first time anyone has talked this way in China. People now know that foreigners have not forgotten."
"It was significant that Chinese were able to see the two leaders' differing styles and different political views," said a veteran dissident, Mr Xu Wenli. "It is also a positive development that Mr Clinton took China to task on recent dissident arrests, about Tiananmen and about prisoners of conscience."
Mr Bao Tong, a senior Communist Party official jailed for sympathising with the students in 1989, said: "I was impressed by Clinton's words, very honest and polite and not offending his hosts."
The US President is expected to return to the human rights theme in a major speech at Beijing University today.
This evening he travels to Shanghai, where the fate of a Chinese opera bound for New York has become a touchstone for the level of artistic freedom in modern China.
The Peony Pavilion is scheduled for its American debut on July 7th in New York, but Ministry of Culture officials in Shanghai, upset by the unorthodox staging of the 16th-century classic, have blocked the opera troupe's exit. However, on Friday, they allowed the stage sets and costumes to leave Shanghai's airport.
"I think it's a good sign the freight went," Mr Nigel Redden, director of the Lincoln Centre Festival, said yesterday. "But at this point the company has not been given permission to leave." Mr Redden is in Shanghai to try to save the show, underwritten by the festival at a cost of $500,000.