US President Barack Obama’s question-answer session with students in Shanghai preceded a good amount of back-door haggling with China on


US President Barack Obama meets students following a town hall meeting at the Museum of Science and Technology in Shanghai. (AFP)
what questions will be put to him and how it will be shown on local television. Obama finally spoke his mind on internet freedom, which China restricts, but skipped the controversial Tibet issue. The US did not wish to contain China’s rise, Obama said. But it would push for freedom of expression, political participation, respect for ethnic minorities and the need to empower women, the US president said before taking the questions. Focusing on the growing political and trade relations between the two giants, he said, “More is to be gained when great powers cooperate than when they collide.” The first black US president was expected to make use of his meeting with Shanghai students to directly address the Chinese public on issues considered sensitive by the local government. Obama did touch on the need to give citizens more freedom, but most of the meeting had the look and feel of a pre-scripted talk show. "These freedoms of expression and worship, of access to information and political participation, we believe are universal rights, they should be available to all people including ethnic and religious minorities," he told the assembled students at the town hall in Shanghai. "I'm a big supporter of not restricting internet use," he said. "The more open we are, the more we can communicate and it also draws the world together," he said. The session was not aired nationally by China Central Television, which had shown live meetings with students in China by former US presidents like George Bush and Bill Clinton. Chinese authorities allowed its telecast in Shanghai city while making no attempt to curb the broadcast from the White House website. The official Xinhua news agency distributed Obama’s comments on the internet. The CCTV is expected to release an edited version of the meeting later today. There are enough reasons for Obama to avoid ruffling Chinese feathers by talking about the Dalai Lama or human rights issues. His administration depends heavily on China’s ability to support its economic recovery package by buying and holding vast quantities of US treasury bonds as well as the two-way trade, which helps boost US business. During the session, Obama pointed out that US-China trade now stood at $400 billion compared to just a few billion dollars when Washington established ties with the People's Republic of China in 1979. "This trade could create even more jobs on both sides of the Pacific ... as demands become more balanced it can lead to even more prosperity," Obama said.