At town hall in China, President Obama presses for individual freedoms

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Obama says freedoms are ‘universal rights’

SHANGHAI — Pressing for freedoms on China’s own turf, President Barack Obama said Monday that individual expression is not an American ideal but a universal right that should be available to all.

In his first presidential trip to Asia, Obama lauded cooperative relations with China but sought to send a clear message to his tightly controlled host country. Just as Obama said few problems can be solved unless U.S. and China work together, he prodded China to accept what he called “universal rights.”

“We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation,” Obama said at a town hall at a museum here, believed to be the first such format used by a U.S. president on Chinese soil. “But we also don’t believe that the principles that we stand for are unique to our nation.”

He added: “These freedoms of expression, and worship, of access to information and political participation — we believe they are universal rights. They should be available to all people, including ethnic and religious minorities, whether they are in the United States, China or any nation.”

Obama sought to find a political balance with China, addressing long-standing U.S. concerns about human rights but extending his hand to a critically important partner on economic and security matters.

“More is gained when great powers cooperate than when they collide,” he said in his opening statement.

In one form or another, though, the theme of free expression kept emerging.

“I’m a big supporter of non-censorship,” Obama said in the course of answering one question about Internet usage. Given where Obama was speaking, such a comment was pointed. China has the world’s largest population of Internet users — and the world’s most extensive system of Web censorship.

The government carefully monitors how the Internet is used in China, from what sites are visited to what content is posted on sites hosted both inside and outside of China.

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.

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.

With a smile, Obama said he has never used the popular social networking site Twitter. But he broadly defended unrestricted Internet access as “a source of strength.” And he said the free flow of information, including criticisms of his presidency, has helped by forcing him to consider other opinions.

The town hall was considered a signature event of Obama’s weeklong trip to Asia. He was to end his day in Beijing in meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao.

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 U.S. 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 U.S. regards as an undervalued Chinese currency that disadvantages U.S. products.

At the town hall, one student asked him about the honor and burden of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. He said he is a symbol of the shift in world affairs that his administration is trying to promote, but reiterated that he didn’t think he had deserved the award.

Obama said there are few global challenges that can be solved unless the U.S. and China cooperate.

As nations prepare for next month’s climate change conference in Copenhagen, Obama said leaders will be watching what the U.S. and China do. He says “that is the burden of leadership that both of our countries now carry.”

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 the 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.

One closely watched test of the line Obama is walking on China will be how he addresses human rights, including religious freedom in the officially atheist nation. Aides said in advance that Obama would raise several human rights issues privately with Chinese leaders, including President Hu.

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.

Obama’s China visit features the only sightseeing of his high-intensity Asian journey. He will visit the Forbidden City, home of former emperors in Beijing, and the centuries-old Great Wall outside of the city. Visiting a country’s noted landmarks is considered a sign of respect in the world of diplomacy. But Obama aides also have learned that finding some tourist time serves to both calm and energize their boss amid the always grueling schedule of a foreign trip.