【09.11.16华盛顿邮报】Obama reaches out to China in first visit

和解团结

【原文链接】http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp ... 3.html?hpid=topnews

【作者】Anne E. Kornblut ，Andrew Higgins
【原文】
SHANGHAI -- President Obama met a carefully screened audience ofChinese students in a town hall-style meeting on Monday, telling themthat relations between the United States and China have often faced "tumultuous winds," but that the two countries have developed "deep and even dramatic ties."


"Surely we have known setbacks and challenges over the last 30 years,"Obama said during his first public appearance in China during hiseight-day trip to Asia. But, he added, "the notion that we must beadversaries is not predestined."


The event was billed as an opportunity for Obama to reach beyondChinese officialdom. But virtually every aspect of the meeting wasscripted.


Obama's audience, selected and coached by Chinese officials, was busedto the venue from eight universities. Questioned briefly as they werehustled into the hall, the students said they were mostly members ofthe ruling Communist Party.


The meeting, attended by nearly 500 students, was held at the ShanghaiScience and Technology Museum, a hyper-modern complex located inPudong, a new development zone far from the city center. Police sealedoff the museum and blocked off nearby streets. Presidents Bill Clintonand George W. Bush also met students during their own trips to Chinabut did so on university campuses.


Obama, in opening remarks, described the United States as a nation thathad endured painful chapters in its history because of its core ideals,including a belief that government should reflect the will of thepeople. He said the United States did not seek to impose "any system ofgovernment on any other nation," but said "America will always speakout for its core principles around the world."


"We made progress because of our belief in those core principles thathave served as our compass in the darkest of storms," Obama said.


He did not begin taking questions before this edition went to press.


Before the meeting, Liu Yupang, a 21-year-old mechanical engineeringstudent from Shanghai's Jiaotong University, said he and fellowstudents had been given an afternoon of "training." He said they couldask Obama what they wanted but had been ordered to take a "friendlyattitude." Liu is a party member.


Chinese officials held newspaper reporters traveling with the WhiteHouse in a separate "viewing room" from which Obama and the studentscould barely be seen.


A sign outside the Museum informed visitors that the premises wereclosed from Nov. 14 to 16 for "maintenance needs." U.S. and Chineseofficials haggled for weeks over the format of the Shanghai meeting,with the United States asking that the meeting be as freewheeling aspossible, and the Chinese demanding the opposite.


Live video of the event was streamed on the official White House Website to reach as many members of the Chinese public as possible bycircumventing the Chinese government's strict control of information.


The Shanghai event was seen by aides as one way for Obama to try topush China toward greater openness. But the Chinese government appearedto exert intense pressure on the town hall organizers, denying accessto some potential guests and forcing others to go through pre-eventtraining. A Beijing blogger, Rao Jin, said that "the Chinese governmentrefused the U.S. Embassy's request" to allow him to attend.


Xu Lyiang, a student at Tongji University, said he had wanted to go buthad been told that the quota of students had been fulfilled. But heheard from a teacher who was helping select attendees that they wererequired to attend a "lecture and a meeting" ahead of time.


Also Friday, Beijing police arrested Zhao Lianhai, an activist who hadbecome a spokesman for parents protesting over contaminated babyformula, his wife said. It was an example of the sort of human rightsrestrictions that advocates say occur all too often.


Zhao's wife, Li Xuemei, said police from Beijing's public securitybureau arrived at the house about 11 p.m. Friday and arrested herhusband, also confiscating two computers, a digital camera, T-shirtsand some fliers. She said she was later told that he had been"officially detained." Bloggers and Internet "netizens" beganpetitioning online for Zhao's release.


Zhao's 3-year-old son was one of tens of thousands of infants whodeveloped kidney stones last year as a result of drinking formulacontaminated with melamine, in one of a series of food safety scandalsin China. As many as 300,000 children were infected by the formula.Officially, at least half a dozen infants died, but activists say theythink there were possibly more.


Beijing has always been wary of American presidents' desire to reachout beyond the standard rituals of government-to-government meetings.The Chinese government has been particularly reluctant to give themunfiltered access to television since 1998, when, during a joint newsconference that was broadcast live, Clinton sharply criticized thebloody 1989 crackdown in Tiananmen Square. White House officials saidthey were not certain how much, if any, of Obama's appearance would bebroadcast on television, and had State Department aides monitoring tofind out.


Obama, traveling through China for the first time, finds himself underthe microscope on whether he intends to take up the issue of humanrights with Beijing more directly than he has so far.


Human rights activists have been alarmed by his delicate approach todate. Last month, he became the first president in nearly two decadesnot to meet with the Dalai Lama during a visit to Washington by theexiled Tibetan leader. Eight months earlier, Hillary Rodham Clintonsoft-pedaled on human rights during her first trip to Beijing assecretary of state, saying that the issue could not be allowed to"interfere" with cooperation on the economy and climate change -- adramatic shift from her landmark speech there in 1995, as first lady,in which she declared that "women's rights are human rights."


When Obama meets with Chinese President and Communist Party boss HuJintao in Beijing on Monday night and Tuesday morning, he will address"issues of freedom of expression, access to information, freedom ofreligion, rule of law and certainly Tibet," said Jeffrey Bader, Obama'sNational Security Council director for East Asian affairs.


But he was relatively mute on those subjects ahead of the visit. In Japanon Saturday, in the most significant address of his Asia trip, Obamadid not mention Tibet or Xinjiang, two minority regions of China thathave been racked by particularly serious protests and severe crackdownsover the past two years.


Still, Obama did call for the release of Burmese dissident leader AungSan Suu Kyi, who has spent most of the past 20 years in jail or underhouse arrest. He repeated the demand Sunday in front of the Burmeseprime minister at an economic summit in Singapore. He made the appealjust hours before leaving Singapore for China, which has long had closediplomatic, business and military ties with the Burmese junta.


Obama has said he will meet with the Dalai Lama after his trip toChina. He had hoped that delaying the meeting would generate goodwill,allow the two countries to focus on economic issues and perhapsencourage Beijing to move ahead with its long-stalled negotiations withthe exiled spiritual leader's representatives.


That approach, however, appears to have emboldened China, encouragingit to ask other countries to refuse to meet the Tibetan leader, saidMichael Green, a Bush administration Asia adviser who is at the Centerfor Strategic and International Studies.


Correspondent Keith B. Richburg and researchers Zhang Jie and Wang Juan in Beijing contributed to this report.