Michelle Obama on Saturday told students in China, which has some of the world’s tightest restrictions on the internet, that freedom of speech and unfettered access to information make countries stronger and should be universal rights.
The first lady was speaking Saturday at Peking University in Beijing during a week-long trip aimed at promoting educational exchanges between the US and China. The trip also took on political overtones when she was granted a previously unscheduled meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping on Friday.
- Mrs Obama said the free flow of information is crucial “because that’s how we discover truth, that’s how we learn what’s really happening in our communities and our country and our world”.
“And that’s how we decide which values and ideas we think are best by questioning and debating them vigorously, by listening to all sides of every argument and by judging for ourselves,” she said.
China blocks many foreign news sites and social media services such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Its army of censors routinely filters out information deemed offensive by the government and silences dissenting voices.
Though not likely to be well-received by the government, Mrs Obama’s remarks may not draw any strong protest because her speech and a subsequent moderated discussion among 50 students sitting in two identical conference rooms in Beijing and Palo Alto, California but connected via modern technology focused mainly on the value of educational exchanges.
Fulbright scholar Eleanor Goodman from Harvard University’s Fairbanks Center for East Asian Research said the first lady probably “felt a need to make that statement”.
“It was firm but not overbearing,” Goodman said.
Sunny Ni, a Chinese student studying environmentalism at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, said that she has no problem accessing information for her studies, and that China is improving with free flow of information.
“It’s a step-by-step process,” Ni said.
Ni said Obama impressed her by saying studying abroad should not be the privilege of the wealthy.
In her speech, the first lady said that the US government is supporting more American students in China than in any other country, and that her husband has launched an initiative to send more American students with diverse backgrounds to China.
- “Our hope is to build connections between people of all races and socio-economic backgrounds, because it is that diversity that truly will change the face of our relationships,” Obama said.
Ni said Obama also appealed to her by saying people need to connect with each other to take on global challenges.
Obama’s meeting Friday with Xi, though not unexpected, was not originally part of the itinerary for her seven-day, three-city trip to China, and was a sign that the leaders of the world’s two largest economies are seeking to build stronger personal bonds.
Xi said he cherished the “personal friendship” he has established with President Barack Obama, and Obama thanked him for his hospitality.....................http://tibet.net/2014/03/23/michelle-obama-in-china-internet-freedom-should-be-universal-right/23/3/14
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Remarks by the First Lady at Stanford Center at Peking University. -The White House..
ReplyDeleteOffice of the First Lady, Beijing, China
MRS. OBAMA: (Applause.) Thank you. Well, ni-hao. (Laughter.) It is such a pleasure and an honor to be here with all of you at this great university, so thank you so much for having me.
Now, before I get started today, on behalf of myself and my husband, I just want to say a few very brief words about Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. As my husband has said, the United States is offering as many resources as possible to assist in the search. And please know that we are keeping all of the families and loved ones of those on this flight in our thoughts and prayers at this very difficult time.
Now with that, I want to start by recognizing our new Ambassador to China, Ambassador Baucus; President Wang; Chairman Zhu; Vice President Li; Director Cueller; Professor Oi, and the Stanford Center; President Sexton from New York University, which is an excellent study abroad program in Shanghai; and John Thornton, Director of the Global Leadership Program at Tsinghua University. Thank you all for joining us.
But most of all, I want to thank all of the students who are here today. And I particularly want to thank Eric Schaefer and Zhu Xuanhao for that extraordinary English and Chinese introduction. That was a powerful symbol of everything that I want to talk with you about today.
See, by learning each other’s languages, and by showing such curiosity and respect for each other’s cultures, Mr. Schafer and Ms. Zhu and all of you are building bridges of understanding that will lead to so much more. And I’m here today because I know that our future depends on connections like these among young people like you across the globe.................http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2014/03/22/remarks-first-lady-stanford-center-peking-university
22/3/14