He did, however, steer clear of the most delicate human rights topics, like the recent unrest in the Chinese regions of Tibet and Xinjiang, and he focused most of his comments on the need for China and the United States to become partners instead of rivals.

Skip to next paragraph
Enlarge This Image

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
President Obama greeted a group of about 500 Chinese students at the Museum of Science and Technology in Shanghai on Monday. Most of the students at the tightly controlled event were members of the Communist Youth League.

Multimedia
Video
Obama Welcomes Rise of China
Related
In China, Obama to Press for Tough Stance on Iran (November 16, 2009)
China Is Sending More Students to U.S. (November 16, 2009)
At War: China's Growing Military Might
The Lede: Obama Walks China's 'Great Firewall'
Times Topics: China
Enlarge This Image

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Chinese students selected by the authorities listened to President Obama field questions at a forum on Monday in Shanghai.

Enlarge This Image

Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
About 500 students were due to be allowed into Monday’s question-and-answer session, and it was expected to be a generally welcoming crowd.
His tone reflected the fact that China had become the largest foreign lender to the United States at a time when America’s total public debt is surging and its economy is still trying to claw its way out of a deep slump. Mr. Obama said the two countries carried a “burden of leadership” on issues like climate change and nuclear nonproliferation, and said they needed to work more closely on matters of mutual concern.

“I will tell you, other countries around the world will be waiting for us,” Mr. Obama said at the town hall meeting. He later flew to Beijing for a dinner and full state visit hosted by Mr. Hu.

At the Shanghai forum, Mr. Obama was asked only one question — “Should we be able to use Twitter freely?” — that delved into an area the Chinese government considers controversial.

His cautious answer stood out as a sign that he hopes to reach China’s youth without offending its increasingly influential leaders. He delivered an oblique critique of China’s rigid controls and restrictions on the Internet and free speech without mentioning that China practices online censorship as a matter of policy.

“I have a lot of critics in the United States who can say all kinds of things about me,” he said. But, he added, “I actually think that that makes our democracy stronger, and it makes me a better leader because it forces me to hear opinions that I don’t want to hear.”

That snippet, at least initially, captured the attention of Chinese netizens. It was a topic of discussion on Web sites for a couple of hours after Mr. Obama spoke, before being deleted or removed from prominent positions. According to several Web snapshots in the hours after the meeting, “What’s Twitter?” and “Obama Shanghai” shot up to the list of top 10 Chinese Google searches.

“I will not forget this morning,” one Chinese Twitter user posted on the Internet, apparently using software to get around the government firewall. “I heard, on my shaky Internet connection, a question about our own freedom which only a foreign leader can discuss.”

But most of the questions appeared to reflect the careful vetting of the crowd by the Chinese. Beijing vetoed the White House’s attempt to invite a group of popular bloggers, an audience component that administration officials hoped would make the session more authentic, according to several people who were asked to participate in the forum.

“I was invited, but then a few days ago I was told we can’t go,” said Michael Anti, a popular blogger who formerly worked as a research assistant at The New York Times and was a Nieman fellow at Harvard last year. “I don’t know why.”