Obama begins China visit with town hall

SHANGHAI — President Obama kicked off his visit to China with a town-hall meeting today in Shanghai, a rare chance for the Chinese people — university students in the audience and others who sent questions via the Internet — to communicate directly with a Western leader.

Pressing for freedoms on China's own turf, Obama said 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 the 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," he said. "But we also don't believe that the principles that we stand for are unique to our nation."

He added: "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."

After his opening remarks, Obama took questions. As is his custom at town halls, he left the podium and made a point of alternating between male and female questioners. More than 400 students from eight different Shanghai universities who attended the event, held at the Shanghai Science & Technology Museum, sat around him.

The meeting was an unusual exercise in U.S.-style participatory democracy for China. It would be unheard of for Chinese students to speak with their own president, Hu Jintao, in such an informal setting.

The White House pushed to have the event broadcast live over Chinese television, but Beijing resisted, allowing live coverage only on Shanghai television. Anyone in China with an Internet connection, however, could watch by logging onto the White House Web site, where it was streamed live, the Obama administration said.

"I'm a big supporter of non-censorship," Obama said in answering a question about Internet usage.

Given where Obama was speaking, the 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.

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 him to consider other opinions.

Compiled from The Associated Press, Los Angeles Times and McClatchy Newspapers reports.