In Beijing, Obama Calls for ‘Strong Dialogue’ - NYTimes.com

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By EDWARD WONG and HELENE COOPER

BEIJING — President Obama and President Hu Jintao of China met in private off Tiananmen Square here on a frigid Tuesday morning to discuss issues like trade, climate change and the nuclear programs of Iran and North Korea, in a session that signaled the central role of China on the world stage.

The leaders told reporters afterward that the United States and China were in agreement on a range of issues, but they spoke only in general terms.

At a news conference where both presidents appeared, neither took questions from reporters, staying in line with the minutely stage-managed atmosphere of Mr. Obama’s first visit to China. They said in separate speeches that the two nations would work together to stabilize the teetering world economy, contain the dangers of climate change and prevent nuclear proliferation.

The public pronouncements were full of familiar rhetoric. At the start of their first meeting, Mr. Obama told Mr. Hu: “We believe strong dialogue is important not only for the U.S. and China, but for the rest of the world.”

The leaders greeted each other at the door of the Great Hall of the People after Mr. Obama’s motorcade slithered its way past thousands of onlookers crowding around Tiananmen Square, in front of the giant portrait of Mao, to catch a glimpse of the American president.

The leaders shook hands and walked up the red carpet, Chinese military leaders facing them. At the conference table where the first bilateral meeting was held, Mr. Obama sat flanked by senior cabinet members.

The meeting came the day after Mr. Obama tried to hold a frank and public discussion with Chinese students in Shanghai. The event was called a town hall, but Mr. Obama’s meeting with about 500 students had little in common with the sometimes raucous exchanges that have become a fixture of American politics.

It was, instead, an example of Chinese stagecraft. Most of those who attended the event at the Museum of Science and Technology turned out to be members of the Communist Youth League, an official organization that grooms obedient students for future leadership posts.

Some Chinese bloggers whom the White House had tried to invite were barred from attending. Even then, the Chinese government took no chances, declining to broadcast the event live to a national audience — or even mention it on the main evening newscast of state-run China Central Television.

The scripted interaction underscored the obstacles Mr. Obama faces as he tries to manage the American relationship with an authoritarian China, whose wealth and clout have surged as its economy has weathered the global downturn far better than the United States’ or Europe’s.

It remained unclear whether the United States would make progress on several issues on this trip, including on the management of its tightly controlled currency, the renminbi, or on how to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons. China has rejected American pressure to allow the renminbi to float freely and has opposed tougher sanctions on Iran.

The degree of control exercised over the most public event of Mr. Obama’s three-day stay in China suggests that Chinese leaders are less willing to make concessions to American demands for the arrangements of a presidential visit than they once were.

The White House spent weeks wrangling with the Chinese authorities over who would be allowed to attend the Shanghai town hall meeting, including how much access the media would have and whether it would be broadcast live throughout the country. In the end, Mr. Obama had little chance to promote a message to the broader Chinese public.

One student who participated in the meeting said she was trained for four days by the Chinese government, and told not to ask questions about Tibet or human rights and to be respectful of President Obama and consider the implications any question would have on U.S.-China relations. She asked not to be identified for fear of being punished by her university.

The event in some respects signaled a retreat from the reception given at least two earlier American presidents, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, who both asked for, and were granted, the opportunity to address the Chinese people and answer their questions in a live national broadcast.

One local television station broadcast Mr. Obama’s session live. But the official Xinhua news agency offered only a transcript of the exchange on its Web site instead of the live Webcast it had promised. The White House streamed the event live on its Web site, which did not appear to be blocked inside China. But that site is not a common destination for most Chinese looking for breaking news.

Although it was carefully choreographed, the event gave Mr. Obama a little room to prod the Chinese authorities toward more openness. In his initial remarks at the forum, Mr. Obama said the United States was not seeking to impose its political system on other countries, but he called freedom of expression and worship among the “universal rights” common to all people.

He did, however, steer clear of the most delicate human rights topics, like the recent unrest in the Chinese regions of Tibet and Xinjiang, and he focused most of his comments on the need for China and the United States to become partners instead of rivals.

His tone reflected the fact that China had become the largest foreign lender to the United States at a time when America’s total public debt is surging and its economy is still trying to claw its way out of a deep slump. Mr. Obama said the two countries carried a “burden of leadership” on issues like climate change and nuclear nonproliferation, and said they needed to work more closely on matters of mutual concern.

“I will tell you, other countries around the world will be waiting for us,” Mr. Obama said at the town hall meeting. He later flew to Beijing for a dinner and full state visit hosted by Mr. Hu.

At the Shanghai forum, Mr. Obama was asked only one question — “Should we be able to use Twitter freely?” — that delved into an area the Chinese government considers controversial.

His cautious answer stood out as a sign that he hopes to reach China’s youth without offending its increasingly influential leaders. He delivered an oblique critique of China’s rigid controls and restrictions on the Internet and free speech without mentioning that China practices online censorship as a matter of policy.

“I have a lot of critics in the United States who can say all kinds of things about me,” he said. But, he added, “I actually think that that makes our democracy stronger, and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don’t want to hear.”

That snippet, at least initially, captured the attention of Chinese netizens. It was a topic of discussion on Web sites for a couple of hours after Mr. Obama spoke, before being deleted or removed from prominent positions. According to several Web snapshots in the hours after the meeting, “What’s Twitter?” and “Obama Shanghai” shot up to the list of top 10 Chinese Google searches.

“I will not forget this morning,” one Chinese Twitter user posted on the Internet, apparently using software to get around the government firewall. “I heard, on my shaky Internet connection, a question about our own freedom which only a foreign leader can discuss.”

But most of the questions appeared to reflect the careful vetting of the crowd by the Chinese. Beijing vetoed the White House’s attempt to invite a group of popular bloggers, an audience component that administration officials hoped would make the session more authentic, according to several people who were asked to participate in the forum.

“I was invited, but then a few days ago I was told we can’t go,” said Michael Anti, a popular blogger who formerly worked as a research assistant at The New York Times and was a Nieman fellow at Harvard last year. “I don’t know why.”

David Barboza contributed reporting from Shanghai, and Jonathan Ansfield from Beijing.