President Clinton arrived in Hong Kong last night on the last stop of his tour of China. Later today he will have his first meeting with a leading Chinese democrat since arriving in the country eight days ago.
After refusing to meet pro-democracy dissidents in mainland China, the president agreed yesterday - after weeks of prevarication by the White House - to have a private meeting with Mr Martin Lee, outspoken leader of the Hong Kong Democratic Party.
The US President's plane, Air Force One, arrived in the former British colony at 8.30 p.m., 90 minutes late, touching down at Hong Kong's new $20 billion (£15 billion) airport, which was formally opened by President Jiang Zemin of China only eight hours earlier.
The new airport is a marvel of modern architecture and engineering, capable of handling 35 million passengers a year. President Jiang left for Beijing after the ceremony, becoming the first departing passenger at the state-of-theart facility, which opens for commercial transport on Monday. Mr Clinton and his party were the first arriving passengers.
The presence of the two world leaders in Hong Kong on the same day was a fitting symbol for a city showing signs of split personality - officially it is now part of China, but it retains a western culture and politics from its 156 years under British rule.
Mr Clinton's meeting with Mr Lee will be private. The White House press secretary, Mr Mike McCurry, said: "We reserve photo opportunities by and large for heads of state and government."
Critics believe, however, that Mr Clinton does not want to offend the Chinese leaders by a high-profile encounter with Lee, who is a harsh critic of Beijing. Mr Lee said last night he was obviously disappointed as he had "nothing to hide from the press", but he believed that Mr Clinton's very presence in Hong Kong meant that the US president was concerned about Hong Kong's future.
"People would like to hear him speak out in support of freedom," Mr Lee said.
A dozen demonstrators burned the US flag outside government house in Hong Kong shortly before Mr Clinton's arrival. The US president's "so-called human rights diplomacy is just lip service", said Mr Leung Kwok-leung, a spokesman for the demonstrators, who also charged Washington with creating poverty in third world countries.
Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Mr Tung Chee-hwa, hosted a dinner for Mr Clinton in government house last night, attended by leading Hong Kong personalities and not ending until midnight.
Before coming to Hong Kong, Mr Clinton visited the lush, coneshaped mountains of Guilin in southern China, where he urged Beijing to deal with its high levels of air and water pollution.
The "costs of growth are rising right along with your prosperity", he said. "You know better than I that polluted air and water are threatening your remarkable progress. Smog has caused entire Chinese cities to disappear from satellite photographs, and respiratory illness is China's number one health problem."
Speaking against a background of two jutting limestone peaks near the Li River, Mr Clinton announced that the US-funded Export-Import Bank would provide a $50 million loan for clean energy projects.
Mr Clinton, with his wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea, then boarded a boat for a sightseeing cruise. Thousands of local people waited hours on the road to the airport to see the US president but he arrived late at the disembarkation point and was driven to the airport by a quicker route.
His parting remark to reporters was: "If every American could see what I've seen I think they would be impressed, and I think they would want to work with China to help it fulfill its potential . . . They would want every Chinese life to have a chance to flower."
As President Clinton was preparing to come to Hong Kong to wind up his tour of China, Mr Jiang was completing two days of celebrations to mark the anniversary of the territory's handover to China on July 1st last year.
Hong Kong gave a warm welcome to the Chinese leader, who on Tuesday and Wednesday visited a shopping centre and a hospital, shaking hands with people and appearing to enjoy himself hugely. Wearing an olive green Mao-style uniform, the Chinese leader yesterday morning inspected units of China's People's Liberation Army in the territory for the first time.
Accompanied by Mr Tung, he reviewed contingents of the army, navy and air force on Stonecutters Island, the former British naval base. As he walked down a red carpet, Jiang shouted: "How are you comrades?" from time to time. The troops responded: "How are you, chief?" Some 5,000 PLA troops are stationed in Hong Kong but remain in barracks.
Later Mr Jiang donned a business suit for the airport opening.