Beijing - President Barack Obama sat down with the Chinese leader on Monday night, hours after he pointedly nudged his host country to stop censoring the internet access, offering an animated defense of the tool that helped him win the White House - and suggesting Beijing need not fear a little criticism.
The president's message during a town hall-style meeting with university students in Shanghai, China's commercial hub, 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 American 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."
The first-term US president and his delegation later arrived at the Forbidden City for Obama's third meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao, where trade and economic issues were expected to dominate.
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."
Freedom of information, expression
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 mobilisation of young people like those in his audience in Shanghai.
"I'm a big supporter of non-censorship," Obama said. "I recognise 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."
Constructive criticism
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 criticised 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.
U.S. ambassador Jon Huntsman called Obama's event the first ever town-hall meeting held by a US 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 US 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 US products.
Obama recognises that a rising China, as the world's third-largest economy - on its way to becoming the second - and the largest foreign holder of US debt, has shifted the dynamic more toward one of equals. For instance, Chinese questions about how Washington spending policies will affect the already soaring US deficit and the safety of Chinese investments now must be answered by Washington.
- AP