The man of the one hour that changed the course of make-or-break trade talks

Former vice-minister of commerce Wei Jianguo has seen just how much a leader's personality and wisdom can change history.

As a witness to Sino-US talks around China's bid to join the World Trade Organisation, Wei saw former premier Zhu Rongji play a decisive role at a critical moment.

'Premier Zhu's involvement at the 11th hour, in the last and most crucial round of talks between China and the US 12 years ago, was crucial for China's official admission to WTO a year later,' Wei said, referring to the negotiations that resulted in an agreement between the two Pacific trade partners on November 15, 1999.

A deal with the US was the most critical one at the time, as it would pave the way for agreements with Europe and other countries. Since April that year, US president Bill Clinton had turned down a WTO pact with China, and administration officials questioned whether an agreement could be reached at all, let alone in time for the WTO summit in Seattle on November 30.

In historian Taylor Branch's The Clinton Tapes, Clinton is reported as saying that his administration was divided over whether to support China's full membership of the WTO. But Zhu also confided in Clinton, in private, about arguments within his government in Beijing about whether to trust foreigners on trade.

To show the Chinese he was serious, Clinton took the unusual step of first sending trusted White House aide Gene Sperling, along with US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky, to Beijing. And days before the crucial talks, Clinton phoned president Jiang Zemin twice to lay the groundwork.