US Secretary of State Mr Colin Powell has arrived in Beijing for a day of top-level talks on improving China-US relations damaged by a series of security and human rights disputes this year.
Mr Powell, the most senior Bush administration official to visit China, flew in from Seoul after Beijing removed one obstacle to better ties by freeing three US-linked Chinese scholars convicted of spying for Taiwan.
Their release this week after months of US lobbying reflected a clear Chinese desire for smooth meetings between Mr Powell and President Jiang Zemin, Premier Zhu Rongji and Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan.
Mr Powell's meetings during a tour of Asian and Pacific nations are designed to prepare for a visit to China in October by President Bush. His first meeting of the day is with Mr Tang.
Hours after Mr Powell and Mr Tang held talks in Hanoi on Wednesday, China said it would give medical parole to two scholars, permanent US residents Gao Zhan and Qin Guangguang. They had been sentenced to 10 years in prison for spying for Taiwan.
The expulsions began that day when academic Li Shaomin, a US citizen convicted of spying for Taiwan, was put on a flight to San Francisco just before the Powell-Tang talks on the sidelines of a regional security meeting.
Mr Powell has said he would look into the cases of a handful of other Chinese scholars with links to the United States - and raise wider human rights issues with Beijing, including the system under which the academics were arrested.
Yesterday the Washington Postreported the United States believed China continued exports of missiles and related technology to Pakistan and other countries in violation of a pledge it made to the United States.
Asked about the allegations at a news conference in South Korea, Mr Powell said he had not yet seen the report but that Chinese compliance with the November 2000 accord had been "mixed - some success and some areas that need improving."
"I will be taking this up with the Chinese authorities in due course," he said.