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Obama sends out gentle message to China on rights and free information flow | Visiting US President Barack Obama has sent out a gentle message to China to facilitate the free flow of information and to guarantee equality for ethnic and religious minorities. Addressing a gathering of local university students here Monday,and
using a rare, live-streamed, unfiltered internet broadcast, Obama raised questions
about Chinese government repression thrice, always in the context of explaining
why the United States will not shy away from promoting equal rights for women
and ethnic minorities around the world, and why he believes censorship only serves
to weaken a society. "That is why America will always speak out for those core
principles around the world. We do not seek to impose any system of government
on any other nation. But we also don't believe that the principles that we stand
for are unique to our nation. These freedoms of expression and worship and access
to information and political participation, we believe are universal rights. They
should be available to all people, including religious and ethnic minorties, whether
they are in the United States, China, or any nation," the Washington Times quoted
Obama, as saying. Obama's interaction with 500 university students here was closely
scrutinized by the Chinese Government for how he would address the most delicate
issue dividing the U.S. and China , human rights. He did so by explaining how
and why those rights have grown to be so deeply valued in the United States ,
through the battles over slavery, the effort to gain women the right to vote,
and the ability of immigrants to be welcomed into American society. He also made
a full-throated pitch for a free and unfiltered web use as a valueable check on
the powerful. "I am a big believer in technology and I am a big believer in openness
when it comes to the flow of information. I believe that the more freely information
flows, the stronger a society becomes," he said. |
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