As reported by the Washington Post's Steven Mufson and Robert G. Kaiser:
"Clinton put his arm around the considerably smaller [Chinese premier Zhu Rongji], according to a Chinese diplomat's account, and told him: 'If you really need this now, we can do it [welcome China into the World Trade Organization]. It's hard for me to do it now, it's a bad time politically, but if you really need it, we can do it. Do you really need it now?' Zhu, dismayed but unwilling to be a supplicant, said he didn't."