Not only did he reign over the whole country, he sought to control the hearts and minds of his subjects as well. He sacrificed the then flourishing Confucianism on the altar of his absolute power, ordering Confucian scholars to be buried alive and their books burnt. Clinton's second stop on Chinese soil will be in Beijing where a solemn welcome ceremony on the edge of Tiananmen Square, the site of 1989 bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations, has been prepared. Once the second most powerful man in China, Zhao has been under house arrest for nine years since he was toppled for sympathising with the student protesters who were gunned down by the military. American legislators opposed to Clinton's ''comprehensive engagement'' with China, have assailed the president for agreeing to the Tiananmen reception.
China wants to be seen as a responsible regional power and recognized as a rising global player.
To get the message across, Beijing carefully prepared Clinton's itinerary to emphasize historic places highlighting China's stature as a powerful ancient state as well as a modern-day economic achiever. They feel nervous about the rise of new power but the improvement of Sino-American relations should serve as a rebut to these fears,'' he said. As a backdrop to the Clinton visit, China's official press advanced theories envisaging a powerful Sino-American axis. ''More and more people understand that in the next century, China could become more important than Russia, Japan or Europe, while the US remains the sole superpower,'' said the China Economic Times in a commentary last week.