Zeenews Bureau
Shanghai: US President Barack Obama on Monday hailed improvements in relations between China and Taiwan, saying there was no need to change Washington's "one-China" policy.
"My administration fully supports a one-China policy," Obama said during a town hall-style meeting with Chinese university students in Shanghai.
"We don't want to change that policy or that approach. I am very pleased with the reduction of tensions and improvement in cross-strait relations."
"Economic and commercial ties that are taking place in this region are helping to lower tensions," the US President said, noting that it was his "deep desire" to see a continued thaw in ties between the two sides.
‘Freedom of expression’
Pressing for freedoms on China's own turf, President Barack Obama said 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 US 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 forum held by a US president on Chinese soil. "But we also don't believe that the principles that we stand for our 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 US 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.
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.
One student asked him about the honour 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 US and China cooperate.
Climate change
As nations prepare for next month's climate change conference in Copenhagen, Obama said leaders will be watching what the US and China do. He says "that is the burden of leadership that both of our countries now carry."
US-China ties
Earlier in the speech, Obama had declared that China and the United States need not be adversaries.
"The notion that we must be adversaries is not predestined," Obama said in a speech ahead of a question-and-answer session on the first full day of his visit to the Asian giant.
Obama also hailed China as a "majestic country," and said that good relations between Beijing and Washington could lead to a more prosperous and peaceful world.
Obama wants to try to break out of the official constraints of his maiden state visit to China and seek to talk directly to Chinese people in a live dialogue via the Internet.
Obama was to hold the campaign-style town-hall meeting with students in Shanghai, before heading to Beijing for talks Tuesday with President Hu Jintao on tough issues like trade, global crises including Iran and climate change.
The US leader, on the third leg of his debut tour of Asia, was to make brief remarks to a high-powered audience described by the White House as "future Chinese leaders," at Shanghai's science and technology museum.
Obama held hundreds of such events on the 2008 White House campaign trail and has used them as president to reach out over the head of traditional news networks in a bid to talk directly to voters.
Officials have been evasive over what kind of restrictions Obama's Chinese hosts have placed on the event, given tight controls on Internet content -- the so-called "Great Firewall of China".
It was unclear whether it would be carried live or unfiltered on Chinese national television.
The students were picked by department heads from universities around Shanghai, and the technology-savvy White House solicited questions over the Internet for the President.
The White House planned to stream the event on its website, taking aim at hundreds of millions of Chinese Internet users. Chinese state media said the website of the official Xinhua news agency would also carry the event live.
Earlier in the day, Obama met with the city's Mayor for about a half-hour and had lunch in Shanghai.
"Both of the countries have benefited greatly from the progress we have made over the last two decades," Obama said as the two sides' vast delegations were arrayed in a giant meeting room.
Thirty years after the start of diplomatic relations between the United States and China, the ties are growing — but remain mixed on virtually every front.
First Published: Monday, November 16, 2009, 13:12