SHANGHAI, Nov. 15, 2009
Obama Walks Tightrope in 1st Trip to China
President's Talks With Beijing Must Balance Trade, Climate Change with Human Rights, Iran Sanctions
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Play CBS Video Video Obama's China Challenges As President Obama arrived in China on his first official visit, he will face many challenges including opening China's market to U.S. goods. Chip Reid has more.
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President Barack Obama walks down the stairs from Air Force One during his arrival at Pudong International Airport in Shanghai, China, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
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Photo Essay President Obama in Japan The president lands in Tokyo, kicking off an eight-day trip to Asia
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Interactive Focus On China Explore the history, people and economy of China, the world’s most populous nation.
Mr. Obama arrived in Shanghai late at night, in a driving rain, hustling through a phalanx of umbrella-holding dignitaries to reach his limousine.
On Monday, the president is holding talks with local politicians and, in one of the marquee events of his weeklong Asian trip, conducting an American-style town hall discussion with Chinese university students.
Thirty years after the start of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the ties are growing - but remain mixed on virtually every front.
The two nations are partnering more than ever on battling global warming, but they still differ deeply over hard targets for reductions in the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause it. China has supported sterner sanctions to halt North Korea's nuclear weapons program, but it still balks at getting more aggressive about reining in Iran's uranium enrichment.
China is a huge and lucrative market for American goods and services, and yet it has a giant trade deficit with the U.S. that, like a raft of other economic issues, is a bone of contention between the two governments. The two militaries have increased their contacts, but clashes still happen and the U.S. remains worried about a dramatic buildup in what is already the largest standing army in the world.
Amid all that, President Obama has adopted a pragmatic approach that stresses the positive, sometimes earning him criticism for being too soft on Beijing, particularly in the area of human rights abuses and what the U.S. regards as an undervalued Chinese currency that disadvantages U.S. products.
President Obama recognizes that a rising China, as the world's third-largest economy on the way to becoming the second and the largest foreign holder of U.S. debt, has shifted the dynamic more toward one of equals. For instance, Chinese questions about how Washington spending policies will affect the already soaring U.S. deficit and the safety of Chinese investments now must be answered by Washington.
Second, President Obama wants not to anger Beijing, but to encourage it to pair its growing economic and political clout with greater leadership in solving some of the most urgent global problems, including a sagging economy, warming planet and the spread of dangerous weapons.
Mr. Obama has talked warmly toward China, particularly in the days leading up to his visit.
"The United States does not seek to contain China," President Obama said in a speech from Tokyo on Saturday. "On the contrary, the rise of a strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations."
One test of the line President Obama is walking on China will be human rights, including religious freedom in the officially atheist nation. Aides said in advance that Mr. Obama would raise several human rights issues privately with Chinese leaders, including President Hu Jintao.
But it was unlikely he would repeat those messages too stridently in public, out of concern for angering his hosts. Even before arriving in China, for example, he declined to get specific about human rights concerns with China in his Tokyo speech and eschewed the traditional presidential meeting with the Dalai Lama while he was in Washington in June.
President Obama said he would see the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader later, a decision welcomed by Chinese officials who pressure foreign governments not to meet with the Dalai Lama and spurn Tibetans' desires for autonomy from Chinese rule.
The White House hoped Monday's town hall meeting with Chinese university students would allow Mr. Obama to telegraph U.S. values - through its successes and failures - to the widest Chinese audience possible.
But those hopes will have their limits in communist-ruled, tightly controlled China. The particulars of the town hall, including whether it could even be called one, were the subject of delicate negotiations between the White House and the Chinese up to the last minute. It remained unclear, for instance, whether - and how broadly - it would be broadcast on television and how much of a hand the central government had in choosing those allowed to question the U.S. president.
Obama's deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said Obama would call at random on several of those in the audience, to be made up of hundreds of students hand-picked by the department heads of Shanghai-area universities, and would also answer questions solicited in advance by the White House from "various sources on the Internet."
Even if the event is only aired on China's main English-language TV channel, which has very few viewers, the White House will stream the conversation live on www.whitehouse.gov, an unblocked site in China.
From Shanghai, President Obama was to be off to the capital of Beijing for the pomp and substance of a two-day state visit hosted for Mr. Obama by Hu.
President Obama's China visit features the only sightseeing of his high-intensity Asian journey. He will visit the Forbidden City, home of former emperors in Beijing, and the centuries-old Great Wall outside of the city. Visiting a country's noted landmarks is considered a sign of respect in the world of diplomacy. But Obama aides also have learned that finding some tourist time serves to both calm and energize their boss amid the always grueling schedule of a foreign trip.
By AP White House Correspondent Jennifer Loven
© MMIX The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- Yeah, that's what you want to do is free Tibet, you'll really see someone starve then ! Just make sure Beijing brings Tibet into the 21st Century and change those stupid laws that says if a Tibetan breaks a law in Xian, you have to return him back to Tibet to stand trial. You break a law here in California, you go to jail in California. Tibet belongs to China so enforce it.
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- china has bought a huge amount of the nation's debt and we have borrowed money from china, a communist nation, to keep our nation economically afloat. democracy has had to rely on communism to survive. nearly all of the products on store shelves here in the usa, including some foods, are made in china, grown or packaged in china. wealthy chinese are buying up our real estate and/or moving here, bringing their families. chinese enter the nation legally and illegally. china is spanking the world's so called best democracy, nearly owns it, supports it. learn mandarin and be nice to chinese because we couldn't live without them since we are very dependent on them. china might just take over the usa without firing a shot.
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- Obama will be spinelessly led around by the ring the Chinese have in his nose.
The Chinese will say, "we have studied 5000 yrs of human history and you are just a community organizer". Obama will say, "Yes. I'm a fraud". The Chinese will say, "That's okay, we know it and you know it, but the American people don't know it yet. Maybe we can help you blame it on George Bush!"
America is weaker under Obama. It's the Obama way. - Reply to this comment
- Watch now the Obama Mao Tao.
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- Prisoners are routinely tortured. Priests and bishops routinely "disappear" after being imprisoned for practicing Catholism. In 1993 2,564 people were sentenced to death in China. Freedom of speech is nonexistant. If Obama wants to show some real leadership, why doesn't he follow a real leader, Ronald Reagan, and refuse to have any relationship with this brutal dictatorship?
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- "The United States does not seek to contain China," President Obama said in a speech from Tokyo on Saturday. "On the contrary, the rise of a strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations."
Umm... China NEEDS to be contained. It still has expansionist ambitions and considers much of Asia its "provinces", waiting to be folded back into greater China. Now that it has absorbed Tibet with the world sheepishly looking on, Taiwan is next on the radar. China is the real adversary, not Russia.
But instead of containing China and strengthening our own economy back home, the U.S. for decades has willingly boosted China's economy at the expense of our own, all because Corporate America needs the cheap labor. And we're still doing it even now. There will come a day when the U.S. is so dependent on China that when it decides to invade Taiwan, we won't and cannot do anything about it. Then next on the list will be Vietnam, Mongolia, etc.
Some people think China won't do anything because its economy will suffer as well if ties with the U.S. are strained or broken. Wrong. Unlike the U.S., the Chinese government is perfectly willing to let its people suffer to further its goals. They've being doing this for centuries and are very good at it. - Reply to this comment
- Apparently 2012EOD has given up.
The conservatives are getting much, much weaker.
Rebuke 3 of their lies and they run away now?
How sad. - Reply to this comment
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- Hah!- you wish. I can back my numbers can you?
Ask your spouse, honey, if we are deep in debt, should we keep spending more than we make?
Then look at the expression on her face.
Wake up.
- Here is the mentality of your party:
KEN ROGULSKI: Why are you here?
WOMAN: To get some money.
ROGULSKI: What kind of money?
WOMAN: Obama money.
ROGULSKI: Where's it coming from?
WOMAN: Obama.
ROGULSKI: And where did Obama get it?
WOMAN: I don't know. His stash. I don't know. I don't know where he got it from but he's giving it to us, to help us. We love him. That's why we voted for him. Obama! Obama!
- Hah!- you wish. I can back my numbers can you?
- by 2012EOD November 15, 2009 6:56 PM EST
How much money has Obama spent so far in office?
As of March 20,2009 and Obama has spent around $2,600,000,000,000 dollars so far in office.
Where did you come up with 1.42 Billion. The GM bailout is over 80?
I have NO IDEA why you made up that $2.6 TRILLION figure, but it's STILL not "more than" the $10.6 TRILLION spent by "all the rest", as you erroneously claimed.
That being said, go to google and type in $1.42 trillion, and pick ANY of the 125,000 "hits" that come up. Clearly the federal deficit for 2009, was $1.42 TRILLION, and quite a lot of that was spent FOR Obama by Bush.
Good luck with your continuing education. In the mean time, just continue guessing. - Reply to this comment
- by 2012EOD November 15, 2009 6:18 PM EST
3 years, 2012 the "Change" will come.
Obviously this dim bulb is referring to the movie that he probably believes is real, rather than the election. - Reply to this comment
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- Ohhh Right. Gotcha.
Obama will be out of office by the time the "world ends" in 2012.
Thanks for straightening me out.
Cuckoo! Cuckoo! Cuckoo!
- Ohhh Right. Gotcha.
- by bann65 November 15, 2009 6:04 PM EST
With the debt Obama has gotten us into and the interest we pay everyday to China, we might be owned by them soon..........
Of the debt that Obama has "gotten us into":
$350 BILLION of it was the second half of the Bush / Paulson TARP giveaway.
$83 BILLION of it was the automaker bailout that Bush created in December.
Unknown BILLIONS were also spent in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But go ahead and assign ALL blame to Obama if it makes you feel better. Continue to ignore reality. It works for most conservatives. - Reply to this comment
- by 2012EOD November 15, 2009 6:28 PM EST
Work, to pay the taxes so you freeloader liberals can eat.
Fact: there are more unemployed registered republicans, than there are unemployed registered democrats.
Care to try again? - Reply to this comment
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- just where do these wingnuts get the idea that they are the only ones that work to pay taxes?
effing ignorant
- by 2012EOD November 15, 2009 6:57 PM EST
What about Welfare / Food Stamps? Care to inform the class on that one?
Yes - unemployed republicans collect welfare and food stamps too.
Seriously, you're playing around right?
You're not REALLY this dumb, are you?
- just where do these wingnuts get the idea that they are the only ones that work to pay taxes?
- by 2012EOD November 15, 2009 6:16 PM EST
You have just described Obama. Yes, one year ago we could, now we owe. He has spent more money than all the others combined. Now who is the liar?
All the others combined spent $10.6 BILLION, and Obama spent $1.42 BILLION.
Last I checked, 1.42 is NOT "more than" 10.6.
I assume that you're going to school for your kindergarten level, remedial math classes? - Reply to this comment
- What do right wing nuts do when they're not whining?
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- Obama's biggest threat isn't from the Chinese, it's from the republicans just waiting until they can find any little thing to pounce on to hurt him. They don't care if it hurts the country, as long as it helps the republicans.
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- With the debt Obama has gotten us into and the interest we pay everyday to China, we might be owned by them soon..........
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- How can you conservatives even try to act like the debt is Obama's fault. It only shows that you are either to ignorant to remember a year ago, or you are willing to lie. Either way it shows the depth you are willing to go in order to destroy this country. What a bunch of low life you all have become.
- How can you conservatives even try to act like the debt is Obama's fault. It only shows that you are either to ignorant to remember a year ago, or you are willing to lie. Either way it shows the depth you are willing to go in order to destroy this country. What a bunch of low life you all have become
You have just described Obama. Yes, one year ago we could, now we owe. He has spent more money than all the others combined. Now who is the liar?
- Of course the right wing nuts will be spending the next 8 years whining.
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- Tight Rope, huh, getting a rope to hang our country out to dry...
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- by 2012EOD November 15, 2009 6:15 PM EST
I know it's changing and under Obama's rule,it will end with "ist"
Socalist, Communist,
capitalist. Play on words all you like. The US highway system, the transcontinental railroad, the second world war, all built and won using socialism. Socialism has had to bailout capitalism twice. Our military couldn't function without a communistic dictatorship command structure. How's that for freedom? Capitalise on the profits and socialise the debt. I for one am getting tired of that one.
- by 2012EOD November 15, 2009 6:15 PM EST
- "Obama walks tightrope in 1st trip to Communist China." They never use that word anymore do they???? I think it stoppped after the American corporations started making the jack...**** democracy and freedom...Show me the money!
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- Saying hi to his comrades I see.
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- Bush seems to have bent over ot his Saudi comrades. the majority of the 911 attackers came from Saudi Arabia. The entire attack was payed for by Saudi money. The leader of the state sponsored terrorist group is a Saud. Saudi Arabia still funds 90% of the Taliban's budget in Afghanistan.
Bush and Cheney are really enemies of the state posing as Texans. Then again the majority of radical enemies of the state come from Texas
- Bush seems to have bent over ot his Saudi comrades. the majority of the 911 attackers came from Saudi Arabia. The entire attack was payed for by Saudi money. The leader of the state sponsored terrorist group is a Saud. Saudi Arabia still funds 90% of the Taliban's budget in Afghanistan.
- His options are limited. Terriorists and Business are tied for first. Human Rights comes last.
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