A CHINESE dissident, Mr Chen Ziming, was under house arrest yesterday after Beijing authorities released him from prison in an attempt to secure a 1997 summit with the US President, Mr Clinton.
Only days before the US Secretary of State, Mr Warren Christopher, visits Beijing, the prison released Mr Chen on medical parole, the State Council said.
But Mr Chen, who is serving a 3 year sentence for plotting to overthrow the government, is under house arrest and has been forced to comply with severe parole restrictions, including not taking telephone calls, according to his family.
The US State Department cautiously welcomed the release, on the condition that Mr Chen would not be returned to jail, as happened in 1995.
Diplomats and human rights groups, however, said the move was a classic bargaining ploy by Beijing.
"It would be a grave mistake for the US administration to over react or treat this as a major concession," said Mr Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington director of Human Rights Watch.
"China knows it has to provide some cover so that the Christopher visit can be labelled a success and the progress towards a presidential summit which is a top priority for Beijing - can be maintained."
China's foreign ministry denied any linkage, as it did when it released two other dissidents, Mr Wang Dan and Mr Wei Jingsheng, ahead of the 1993 decision on the hosting of the 2000 Olympics.
"You should not mix unrelated cases together," a foreign ministry spokesman, Mr Cui Tiankai, told reporters when asked how Mr Chen's release might affect Mr Christopher's four day visit starting on November 18th.
A presidential summit has repeatedly eluded China, although Beijing is hoping for positive results from talks between Mr Clinton and the Chinese President, Mr Jiang Zemin, on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting at the end of November.
Foreign journalists who attempted to reach Mr Chen's home yesterday ran into a heavy police presence and were told to leave the area immediately.
Mr Chen (44) was previously released on medical parole in 1994, ahead of the US decision on whether to renew China's most favoured nation trading status. He was jailed again a year later after staging a one day hunger strike to mark the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre on June 4th, 1989.
He is suffering from testicular cancer, heart and liver problems and a swollen prostate gland and has received no medical treatment since his return to prison on June 26th, 1995, according to his family.
A former journalist, he founded China's first private research institute in the mid 1980s with a fellow dissident, Mr Wang Juntao, who is now living in exile in the US.