It seemed a good idea when the White House brought forward to this week the visit of President Clinton to China originally planned for next autumn. It looked at the time that the visit would distract the media from the Paula Jones court case against the President claiming sexual harassment which was also fixed to run in Little Rock during June.
Then the Little Rock judge dismissed the Paula Jones suit without even a hearing, but soon afterwards embarrassing details began to emerge about Chinese funding for Mr Clinton's re-election in 1996. In addition came allegations that the Clinton administration relaxed controls on the transfer of satellite technology to China and that a main beneficiary was the biggest single contributor to the Democratic Party.
Meanwhile, the campaign by human rights activists and the pro-Tibet lobby went into high gear demanding that the President call off the visit to China as the welcoming ceremony in Tiananmen Square would look as though the US was willing to overlook the killing of hundreds of student protesters there in 1989.
Suddenly, the president and his aides were on the defensive, having to justify the China trip which was meant to show him as a world statesman. The Republican-controlled Congress added to the pressure by setting up a series of investigations into the charges that US security may have been jeopardised. Some 150 Republican members of Congress have written to the president asking him to cancel the visit as he is "ill-equipped" to go there at this time.
The explosion by Pakistan of nuclear devices led to further criticism of the president's policy. He was accused of not ensuring that China was deterred by sanctions from transferring nuclear technology to Pakistan.
Through the clamour of the critics, Mr Clinton and his foreign policy staff have tried to point out that there is a coherent China policy and that the US is not selling out on human rights for the sake of trade. This is what Mr Clinton accused former President Bush of doing and he is now finding his own words being thrown back in his face.
In an essay in Newsweek this week, the president insists: "We have chosen a pragmatic and principled course, expanding our areas of co-operation with China while dealing directly with our differences, especially over human rights."
Showing some exasperation, Mr Clinton told Chinese reporters in Washington that the Chinese people should understand that "in our system there are some people who criticise everything I do. If I walked out of the White House and I spread my arms and I proved I could fly, some people would claim that I had done something wrong."
The president insists that he will speak out on human rights, including religious freedom, in China. He will also urge the Beijing authorities to resume talks over Tibet autonomy with the exiled Dalai Lama.
US firms still see enormous potential for trade with China especially for aircraft, nuclear reactors and information technology. But in view of the allegations of big corporations landing contracts in return for campaign contributions, it has been decided this time to exclude senior business executives who are usually part of such trips.
China has revoked the visas of three Radio Free Asia reporters who were to cover President Clinton's visit to China, the US-funded service said yesterday.
President Clinton immediately denounced the move during a White House ceremony. He warned that it would undermine China's drive to win recognition for its moves to expand freedom of expression. "I think it's a highly objectionable decision," Mr Clinton told reporters "We will protest it".