After 15 years of fruitless talks, and with just 20 days left until time runs out, Washington and Beijing have decided to make one last mighty heave to try to get China into the World Trade Organisation.
Following a telephone conversation between China's President, Mr Jiang Zemin, and the US President, Mr Clinton, on Saturday, the leading US trade negotiator and a senior White House official have arrived in Beijing to begin two days of intensive negotiations to break the deadlock.
If they do not reach an agreement before the WTO's 134 members meet in Seattle at the end of the month to start a new global trade round, then Beijing's hopes of entry will be dashed for the foreseeable future.
Much is at stake. For China, WTO membership would mean fresh impetus in the faltering drive to reform bankrupt state-owned enterprises by injecting foreign competition into the market, and it would be a giant step towards its goal of integration into the world economic system. Failure would mean loss of international investor confidence in the 50-year-old communist economy.
For the US, success would mean the further opening of China to US and international market forces and a sharp improvement in relations between the two powers, following the crisis over the NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade earlier this year. It would also enhance Mr Clinton's legacy with a foreign policy victory boosting US business abroad.
In a sign that Washington is serious, the US Trade Representative, Ms Charlene Barshefsky, will be accompanied by Mr Gene Sperling, who chairs the influential White House National Economic Council.
The last concerted effort at agreement between the two countries came in April when the Chinese Prime Minister, Mr Zhu Rongji, during a visit to Washington, offered unprecedented access for US companies to Chinese markets in vehicles, agricultural products, telecommunications and financial services.
President Clinton rebuffed his guest, holding out for more, notably in the areas of banking, financial services and protection from surges in Chinese steel and textile exports. This caused major loss of face for Mr Zhu and negotiations on WTO membership were then suspended following the Belgrade embassy bombing.
Ms Barshefsky and Mr Sperling reportedly disagreed in April over whether Mr Clinton should accept Mr Zhu's concessions, with the trade representative advising acceptance and Mr Sperling successfully counselling Mr Clinton to insist on more.
Ms Barshefsky, apparently as part of the administration's internal squabble, made public a list of offers Mr Zhu allegedly made, and this in turn angered China.
The fact that the two officials have arrived together in Beijing is clearly meant to signal that the US administration is no longer divided in its approach to Chinese membership. Whether this is so remains to be seen.
Any concession on opening its markets would have to be agreed with the EU but a deal between Washington and Beijing would pave the way for international acceptance.
The last-minute negotiations take place against new political fractures in the relationship between Washington and Beijing. China yesterday warned the US of "new difficulties" in their relationship if US officials continued to criticise its crackdown on the Falun Gong movement.
The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Ms Zhang Qiyue, demanded the US "correct its erroneous" decision to grant political asylum to a Falun Gong adherent in New York.