Obama to China: Uncensored society is healthy
Nov. 16 2009 - 02:41 pm
President Barack Obama sat down with the Chinese leader Monday night,
hours after he pointedly nudged his host country to stop censoring
Internet access, offering an animated defence of the tool that helped
him win the White House — and suggested Beijing need not fear a little
criticism.
The president's message during a town hall-style meeting with
university students in Shanghai, focused on one of the trickiest
issues separating China's communist government and the United States —
human rights.
In a delicately balanced message, Obama couched his admonitions with
words calling for cooperation, heavy with praise and humility.
"I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the
society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world
can hold their own governments accountable," Obama told students
during his first-ever trip to China. "They can begin to think for
themselves."
Obama later arrived for his third meeting with Chinese President Hu
Jintao at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, where trade, climate change
and economic issues were expected to dominate. The two leaders had
dinner in the government complex and were scheduled to meet again
Tuesday.
Obama's message, aside from his proddings on human rights, was clear:
few global challenges can be solved unless the world's only superpower
and its rising competitor work together. He and his advisers have
insisted in virtually all public utterances since he arrived in Japan
on Friday: "We do not seek to contain China's rise."
During Obama's opening statement to university students in Shanghai,
he spoke bluntly about the benefits of individual freedoms in a
country known for limiting them.
"We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other
nation," Obama said. Then he added that freedom of expression and
worship, unfettered access to information and unrestricted political
participation are not principles held by the United States; instead,
he called them "universal rights."
The line offered echoes of Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush, who
often talked of the "universality of freedom." Obama talked at length
about the Internet, which he said helped him win the presidency
because it allowed for the mobilization of young people like those in
his audience in Shanghai.
"I'm a big supporter of non-censorship," Obama said. "I recognize that
different countries have different traditions. I can tell you that in
the United States, the fact that we have free Internet — or
unrestricted Internet access is a source of strength, and I think
should be encouraged."
Given where Obama was speaking, such a comment carried strong
implications. And he appeared to be talking directly to China's
leaders when he said that he believes free discussion, including
criticism that he sometimes finds annoying, makes him "a better leader
because it forces me to hear opinions that I don't want to hear."
China has more than 250 million Internet users and employs some of the
world's tightest controls over what they see. The country is often
criticized for having the so-called "Great Firewall of China," which
refers to technology designed to prevent unwanted traffic from
entering or leaving a network.
Obama's town hall was not broadcast live across China on television.
It was shown on local Shanghai TV and streamed online on two big
national Internet portals, but the quality was choppy and hard to
hear.
Obama is in the midst of a weeklong Asia trip. He came with a vast
agenda of security, economic and environmental concerns, although
always looming was how he would deal with human rights while in China.
His China visit features the only sightseeing of his journey. He will
visit the Forbidden City, home of former emperors in Beijing, and the
centuries-old Great Wall outside of the city. Aides have learned that
finding some tourist time calms and energize their boss amid the
grueling schedule of an international trip.
U.S. ambassador Jon Huntsman called Obama's event the first ever
town-hall meeting held by a U.S. president in China. Yet former
presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush also spoke to students and
took questions from them during stops in China.
China is a huge and lucrative market for American goods and services,
and yet it has a giant trade surplus with the U.S. that, like a raft
of other economic issues, is a bone of contention between the two
governments. The two militaries have increased their contacts, but
clashes still happen and the United States remains worried about a
dramatic buildup in what is already the largest standing army in the
world.
Amid all that, Obama has adopted a pragmatic approach that stresses
the positive, sometimes earning him criticism for being too soft on
Beijing — particularly in the area of human rights abuses and what the
United States regards as an undervalued Chinese currency that
disadvantages U.S. products.
The two nations are working together more than ever on battling global
warming, but they still differ deeply over hard targets for reductions
in the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause it. China has supported
sterner sanctions to halt North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but
it still balks at getting more aggressive about reining in Iran's
uranium enrichment.
Obama recognizes that a rising China, as the world's third-largest
economy — on its way to becoming the second — and the largest foreign
holder of U.S. debt, has shifted the dynamic more toward one of
equals. For instance, Chinese questions about how Washington spending
policies will affect the already soaring U.S. deficit and the safety
of Chinese investments now must be answered by Washington.
The White House hoped Monday's town hall meeting with Chinese
university students would allow Obama to telegraph U.S. values —
through its successes and failures — to the widest Chinese audience
possible.
But those hopes had their limits in communist-ruled China.
Associated Press
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