LOS ANGELES, Nov. 4 (UPI) _ Chinese President Jiang Zemin has headed home after an eight-day visit to the United States, but the leader of the world's most populous nation left without giving U.S. officials any reason to believe China would waver on its longstanding position on human rights.

Jiang departed Monday from Los Angeles International Airport following a red-carpet farewell ceremony led by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan.

State Department spokesman James Rubin in Washington saw no signs during Jiang's visit that China was having any rethinking of its controversial policy on human rights, despite a reference during a speech at Harvard University on Saturday to his nation having ``made mistakes.''

Rubin said U.S. government officials, after reviewing the speech, concluded there was no evidence China had any intentions of softening its stance on human rights.

Efforts by President Clinton and members of Congress to make headway on Tibet and other human rights issues during Jiang's visit to Washington appear to have been futile.

While repeatedly defending the communist nation of some 1.2 billion people, Jiang did express a willingness to open China a bit more to outsiders for business and other purposes.

Jiang was the first Chinese leader to visit the United States since President Li Xiannian 12 years ago.

At virtually every stop of his visit, Jiang was faced with protestors urging China to change its unyielding stance on human rights issues.