The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, said human rights was the most difficult topic in her talks with Chinese leaders in Beijing, but made clear the issue would not interfere with "multifaceted" Sino-US ties.
"The Chinese have expressed unhappiness with our condemnations of recent unjustified arrests and trials and with last week's State Department report documenting widespread human rights violations," she said. But the United States "will never apologise for speaking or publishing the truth".
The Chinese expressed outrage in private meetings at US criticisms and issued a lengthy attack in the media about US human rights abuses, from crime levels to discrimination against minorities.
However, the Chinese Foreign Minister, Mr Tang Jiaxuan, deflected attacks by accusing "anti-China elements" in the US of going all out to harm relations between Washington and Beijing.
The meeting bears out China's apparent calculation that its recent crackdown on pro-democracy campaigners would not seriously interfere with Washington's engagement strategy, as going back would risk progress on other issues such as stability on the Korean peninsula.
Certainly, there were no suggestions that the US would resume its policy of sponsoring a resolution at the UN Human Rights Commission critical of China. Instead, Ms Albright suggested the US would back China's entry into the World Trade Organisation.
A US trade representative, Ms Charlene Barshefsky, said: "There is a good chance that we can move that process forward".. A successful outcome would be a giant step towards China's integration into the world economy, and "would also help address US concerns about our mounting trade deficit with China and about barriers to market access to US firms". It would also enhance prospects for the success of Premier Zhu Rongji's scheduled visit to Washington next month. Ms Albright said she made it clear that "America's view is that a society is more, not less, likely to be stable when citizens have an outlet for the peaceful expression of political views. Moreover, trying to organise a political party is not a threat or crime, it's a right guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".
However, she added that Sino-US relations had reached the point where they could withstand even sharp disagreements, signalling that human rights had been effectively sidelined as a bilateral issue. "All told it's fair to say that in our relations with China these are neither the best of times nor the worst of times."
The Secretary of State said Beijing had encouraged greater economic and social freedoms for Chinese people, that there had been "meaningful elections" at village level, and public discussion of political reform and the rule of law had broadened.
The visit was the first at top level since a new crackdown on dissent. Since December China has jailed three veteran activists for attempting to register an opposition party. Five others have been sent to labour camps without trial, and dozens more have been detained for questioning. Just before her arrival, a dissident, Mr Wu Yilong, was arrested and a democracy advocate, Mr Peng Ming, sentenced to labour camp.
During the two days of talks the Chinese side raised embryo US proposals to create a Theatre Missile Defence system in Asia which could bring Taiwan under the regional defence umbrella, an act which Beijing says will encourage pro-independence tendencies on the island.
"Instead of worrying about a decision that has not been made to deploy defensive technologies that do not yet exist, China should focus its energies on the real source of the problem: the proliferation of missiles," she said.