By JONATHAN WEISMAN and JAMES T. AREDDY
SHANGHAI – President Barack Obama, speaking in a nation where openness and Internet access are heated issues, told Chinese students here that the free flow of information makes societies stronger and holds political leaders accountable.
People in positions of power may bristle at criticism, he said. He has felt that as well. But, he said, open criticism “makes me a better leader. …It forces me to hear things I don’t want to hear.”
Speaking at an hour-long town-hall style forum at this city’s Museum of Science and Technology, the U.S. president fielded eight questions, some of them e-mailed to the U.S. embassy in Beijing from around the country.
The Chinese government did not appear willing to take chances with the session. The state-run Xinhua news agency had said Sunday that it would broadcast the event live on its Web site, Xinhuanet, but instead it ran a live transcription of the event with no video. Shanghai TV News Channel did broadcast the event live, with simultaneous translation, but there was little advanced promotion of the program and the network has limited reach throughout the world’s most populous nation.
Mr. Obama approached difficult issues in China but veered away from real controversy. His comments extolling freedom of expression and political criticism did not directly criticize China or Chinese leadership.
One questioner suggested Americans and Chinese have different cultures and that the United States should not impose its views on China. Mr. Obama responded that the United States believes “there are certain fundamental principles that are common to all people regardless of culture.”
But he did not mention hot button human rights issues such as Tibet or the Muslim Uighers. Instead, he said children should not be exploited or forced into labor, and women should be respected, educated and allowed to pursue careers. He did defend existing U.S. policy regarding Taiwan.
His emphasis was on U.S.-Chinese cooperation and the improvement of political and economic relations going forward.
For the most part, questioners played it safe as well, with questions that would neither upset Mr. Obama or Chinese leaders.
US President Barack Obama shakes hands with guests as he arrives for a town hall meeting at the Museum of Science and Technology in Shanghai, on November 16, 2009.
It remained unclear how student questioners were vetted and whether their queries were spontaneous. At one point, a young woman from Shanghai International Studies University, reading a question she said came from a Taiwanese businessman off the Internet, suggested Taiwanese opposed arms sales to their island.
“When I heard some people [in the United States] want to continue selling arms to Taiwan, I became very worried,” the Internet questioner said.
Mr. Obama responded by praising warming relations between Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China and reaffirming the U.S. commitment to a one-China policy.
Anticipating issues of dissemination, the White House streamed the program live on its website, whitehouse.gov, and although the quality was shaky, it appears to have been accessible to Chinese users.
Students at the event picked up on Mr. Obama’s emphasis on close ties between the countries. Sun Yeqing, a 22-year-old who spent several months in a work-study program at Walt Disney World in Florida where he watched Mr. Obama’s presidential campaign, said, “He can bring China and America to the new age.”
Wang Yi, 23, from Fudan University, said the U.S. president was “more open and more humorous” than she had expected from newspaper coverage.
—Jason Dean contributed to this article.
Write to Jonathan Weisman at jonathan.weisman@wsj.com and James T. Areddy at james.areddy@wsj.com
