What a remarkable year it has been in the lives of both China and Jiang Zemin, with the death of Deng Xiaoping, Hong Kong's return, the 15th Party Congress and now a full-blown state visit to the United States, the first in almost 19 years.
So far, everything has gone according to the script. Nothing unexpected has ruffled the ponderous calm with which Mr Jiang has presided over all these great events.
Nothing has slipped out of control - no street demonstrations, no signs of visible dissent inside or outside party ranks.
Even China's shaky economy seems to be holding up just long enough to ensure Mr Jiang has a smooth ride in the United States. When he lands in Hawaii tomorrow, he will be in a vastly more confident mood than when Mr Deng arrived in 1979.
Nearly 20 years ago, China was a vast, traumatised and half-starving empire still rent between twisted Maoist loyalists and would-be reformers embittered after years of imprisonment.
Mr Deng's personal future and that of his reforms were far from certain and the Chinese had been indoctrinated to despise America.
The trip's importance owed as much to domestic considerations as to geopolitical implications. In one respect, Mr Jiang's visit will do for him what his predecessor's did for him: cap his assumption of full power.