Can Obama conquer China?
Chinese censors try to create a firewall to shield China's people from Obama's charisma
Barack Obama visits the Forbidden City in Beijing -- but China keeps its people out of reach
(XinHua/Xinhua Press/Corbis/Pang Xinglei)
President Obama criticized China for blocking its citizens from using Twitter and Facebook, saying, "I'm a big supporter of non-censorship." But few Chinese heard the remarks, which Obama made at a town-hall-style meeting Monday in Shanghai. Chinese censors blocked Obama's comments online, and only one local TV station aired them. Will censors prevent Obama from reaching the people of China on his first visit to their country? (Watch Obama field a question about Twitter and China's "firewall")
China blocked out Obama's charm: China's censorship has made it hard for President Obama "to bring his trademark charisma to bear," say Ian Johnson and Jonathan Weisman in The Wall Street Journal. The town-hall meeting was a "tightly scripted affair," and Obama's televised remarks after his Tuesday meeting with Chinese President Hu Jintao will be his only chance to address the public directly. "The net effect is that the trip, which isn't expected to yield major substantive agreements, isn't likely to give Mr. Obama much of a symbolic victory either."
"Beijing limits Obama's exposure"
Obama did what he could: Give President Obama credit, says Robert Mackey in The New York Times. Sure, many people in China weren't able to see him take on China's Twitter ban. But he at least tried to "push at the boundaries of the Chinese system of state censorship of the Internet." China Digital Times, which monitors the Chinese Web from the U.S., "reported that some Chinese bloggers saluted" Obama for bringing up an issue that, in the words of one Twitter user, "only a foreign leader can discuss."
"Obama walks China’s ‘Great Firewall’"
China won the battle but will lose the war: China can block Twitter -- and President Obama's remarks -- in the short term, says Isaac Mao in Britain's Guardian. But the Beijing government will learn that containing the Chinese blogosphere isn't as easy as locking up dissidents. "The booming Internet cannot be controlled for much longer."
"Obama takes on the China firewall"
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9 Comments
Posted by floor flusher, Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 7:18 pm This is the same man who is trying to control FREE SPEECH in America. I laughed out loud when he made these 'strong demands' to China. What a joke. He wants to control Fox when they so not show bias TOWARD him, as the other stations do, but China should listen to him because he leads by example? LOL. It was a joke, right? BHO was being hilarious? Who did he bow to in China?
Posted by Tim, Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 7:56 pm The presidency is just one long vacation and travelogue for the Obamas, isn't it? When does he start working? Smile for the camera, BO. Shame on me for voting for him. NEVER again.
Posted by get real, Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 7:58 pm stifling free speech? his aide called out fox news. your silly alarmist views are the reason people laugh at america.
Posted by get real, Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 8:04 pm tim, how soon you forget GWBush's golf outings and crawford extended stays. BHO is getting things done, meeting with upper level members of government while he visits these countries, hardly conjuring up images of our president lazing in the sun. these are no vacations.and who the hell would choose beijing as a prime vacation spot? get over yourselves, clowns.
Posted by GD, Tuesday, November 17, 2009, 10:07 pm I've lived in China. Holding a town hall meeting is revolutionary stuff, however constrained.
Posted by Brett, Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 7:33 pm Don't lie, Tim. You didn't vote for Obama. If you had enough brains to vote for him in the first place, you wouldn't be whining about him going to China and talking in public about how he supports noncensorship. Don't be ridiculous, floor flusher. No one but the neocons has tried to control free speech in America. I remember just a year or so ago when people like you considered criticism of the president to be treason, even though there were plenty of valid reasons to do so. Now you consider it to be patriotic even when it's based on rumor.
Posted by Vijay, Thursday, November 19, 2009, 1:44 am I believe it is time for US to start clawing back manufacturing from China. It is as simple as food security. Once you reach a critical mass/tipping point in manufacturing, you allow the country the advantage of building enough muscle to challenge you. Look at Chinese space program and you will know what I mean. Put jobs back in US.
Posted by Greg Wemhoff, Saturday, November 21, 2009, 8:26 am Floor flusher Obama did not bow to ANYONE IN CHINA. He bowed in JAPAN.ARE YOU STUPID OR WHAT?
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