China’s President Hu Jintao (L) and US President Barack Obama inspect honour guards during a welcome ceremony at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in this file photo of November 17, 2009. China is locking down droves of people it fears could spark social unrest and tightening media controls ahead of the annual session of parliament.
China is locking down droves of people it fears could spark social unrest and tightening media controls ahead of the annual session of parliament, worried that uprisings in the Middle East could encourage dissent.
Protests that have toppled authoritarian Arab governments have reinforced Chinese leaders’ vigilance about defending one-party control, a priority since the Party crushed pro-democracy protests in June 1989.
Those official anxieties are sure to multiply as President Hu Jintao prepares to hand power to a successor generation from late 2012.
Some foreign reporters were assaulted over the weekend in central Beijing, where an online message from abroad had urged a pro-democracy gathering inspired by the “Jasmine Revolution” in the Arab world. Police smothered the designated area and no protest happened.
One week on, and China is still smarting from the "hurt' it suffered when jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
"Can anyone expect a country to stay silent when its sovereignty and dignity are violated?" Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu demanded Thursday.
He told reporters that giving Liu the prize "is equivalent to encouraging crimes in China," and "a violation of China's judicial sovereignty."
And, just hours after Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan joined the ranks of world leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama, calling for Liu's release, Ma questioned their motivation.
"I wonder what their true intention is?" he demanded. "Is it because they resent China's development path and hate China's political system?"
Protesters in Hong Kong show their support for jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was awarded the Nobel Prize last week. Beijing has expressed anger over the award.
Jailed Chinese pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize today for decades of non-violent struggle for human rights, an award that Beijing had anticipated and bitterly criticised.
The prize puts China’s human rights record in the spotlight at a time when it is starting to play a bigger role on the global stage as a result of its growing economic might.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee praised Liu for his “long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China”.
Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo smokes a cigarette in this undated photo released by his family
The euphoria overseas and in some domestic circles at dissident Liu Xiaobo’s winning of the Nobel Peace Prize has failed to mask deeper unease that his victory will likely bring little change in Communist Party-ruled China.
Liu, 54, has been a thorn in the government’s side since 1989 when he joined student protesters on a hunger strike days before the army crushed the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement and has been in and out of jail ever since.
Protesters demonstrate outside the Chinese Foreign Ministry in Hong Kong October 8, 2010 demanding the release of jailed Chinese pro-democracy activist Liu Xiaobo. Liu won the Nobel Peace Prize for 2010
A pig which was born with just its two front legs has become an unlikely celebrity in Henan Province, China.
The 10-month-old animal, known by villagers as Zhu Jianqiang, which means Strong-Willed Pig, was born with only two front legs, which it now uses to walk on.
According to owner Wang Xihai, Zhu Jianqiang was one of nine piglets born in a litter this January.
He recalls: 'My wife asked me to dump it but I refused as it's a life. I thought I should give it a chance and unexpectedly it survived healthily.'
Zhu's owner Wang Xihai was offered a high price to sell her to a circus, but he turned it down
That'll do, pig: Wang said it took Zhu just 30 days to master the art of walking upside down
For years, US policymakers have watched uneasily as China grew more assertive, fearing that the emerging power would cut into Washington's clout in one of the world's most dynamic regions.
But in recent weeks, China's rise has instead offered a golden opportunity for the United States, which has swiftly rallied behind the growing number of Asian nations that have butted heads with Beijing.
After China piled pressure on Japan to free a captain captured near disputed islands, the United States said it considered the chain -- known as the Senkaku in Japanese and Diaoyu in Chinese -- to be under Tokyo's administration, meaning that US forces would be obliged by treaty to defend Japan in an attack.
Somein the US say they accept that China will expand its military but hoped it would use its forces in a positive way
China has seized more than 100 tonnes of melamine-contaminated milk powder in its northern provinces, state media reported late yesterday, the latest case of food safety problems in the world’s most populous country.
A total of 103 tonnes of milk powder from four dairy brands in Hebei, Shanxi and Tianjin provinces were found to be laced with the industrial chemical melamine, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
Authorities have detained 41 suspects on the case.
China has surpassed the US to become the world's top energy consumer, new data says
A cyclist and his passenger ride past coal bricks on sale in Beijing
China on Tuesday rejected an assessment from the International Energy Agency that it had surpassed the United States to become the world's top energy consumer, calling the data "unreliable".
Soldiers evacuate residents from the site of a landslide in Dazhai Village, Guanling County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, on June 28, 2010. Some 107 people from 38 families were buried and trapped by a rainstorm-triggered landslide Monday afternoon in southwest China's Guizhou Province, local authorities said. (Xinhua/Long Rongfang)
Soldiers rush to the site of a landslide in Guanling County of southwest China's Guizhou Province, on June 28, 2010. Some 107 people from 38 families were buried and trapped by a rainstorm-triggered landslide Monday afternoon in southwest China's Guizhou Province, local authorities said. (Xinhua/Ou Dongqu)
Rescuers Tuesday recovered a child's body from the scene of a rainstorm-triggered landslide, which was the first body to be retrieved after 107 people were buried in the disaster in southwest China's Guizhou Province Monday afternoon.
Chinese President Hu Jintao (R) and International Exhibitions Bureau (BIE) President Jean-Pierre Lafon attend the opening ceremony of the Shanghai World Expo in Shanghai, east China, on April 30, 2010.
Fireworks forming smiling faces explode over the World Expo Park during the opening ceremony for the 2010 World Expo held in Shanghai, east China, April 30, 2010
Spectacular fireworks explode over China Pavilion at the World Expo Park during the opening ceremony for the 2010 World Expo held in Shanghai, east China, April 30, 2010.
Flags-bearers enter the venue carrying the flags of participants during the opening ceremony of the 2010 Shanghai World Expo at the Expo Cultural Center in Shanghai, east China, April 30, 2010
The Yangtze joins the Blue Danube. Traditional Chinese-style Tang blouses are refitted into ballet dresses. Artists of different colors sing and dance on the same stage.
The Shanghai World Expo opened Friday night with artistic performances, fireworks and high technologies that epitomized 159 years of Expo history.
Thousands of people watched the gala live at the futuristic, UFO-shaped Shanghai Expo Cultural Center, a centerpiece facility at the Expo Park, while thousands more enjoyed fireworks, lights and fountains on the waterfront promenade, the Bund.
Across China, millions shared Shanghai's celebration in front of their TVs.
The indoor performances starred China's piano prodigy Lang Lang, famous for his dramatic countenance and gestures, who played the New Shanghai Concerto, the event's theme music.
The presence of international stars, including Andrea Bocelli, Shinji Tanimura and Maori dancers, turned the stage truly international.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy (L) and his wife Carla Bruni-Sarkozy (R) arrive at Xi'an, the capital of northwest China's Shaanxi Province, on April 28, 2010, kicking off a three-day state visit to China. (Xinhua/Yang Yimiao)
French President Nicolas Sarkozy arrives in Xi’an, capital of northwest China's Shaanxi province, Wednesday morning, starting his three-day state visit to China.
Sarkozy will leave Xi'an for Beijing Wednesday afternoon. He will also visit Shanghai and attend the opening ceremony of the Shanghai World Expo scheduled for April 30.
During his stay in China, Chinese President Hu Jintao, top legislator Wu Bangguo and Premier Wen Jiabao will meet or hold talks with Sarkozy. Leaders of the two countries will exchange views on further improving China-France all-round strategic partnership as well as international and regional issues of mutual concern, according to Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy says he wants to enhance Franco-Sino relations at all levels because China has an indispensable role to play on the global stage.
Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren (C, Front) and other participants pose for a group photo prior to the IMF-World Bank Development Committee meeting in Washington April 25, 2010.
The voting power reform approved by the World Bank's Development Committee on Sunday is a historic move and will let developing countries play bigger roles in world development, said Chinese Finance Minister Xie Xuren.
"This reform has increased the representation and voice of developing countries and made the World Bank's governance structure fairer and more reasonable," Xie told reporters in Washington.
"It will protect the interest of developing countries and provide developing countries chances to play a bigger role," the minister said. "It will also enhance the World Bank's contribution to helping developing countries' economic development and poverty reduction."
World Bank member countries reached an agreement on a 3.13-percent shift in voting power to give emerging and developing nations greater influence in the global institution.
The shift will increase the votes of the developing world to 47.19 percent from 44.06 percent. China's stake at the bank, in terms of voting power, rises from 2.78 percent to 4.42 percent.
Xie said the reform reflected the reality of enhanced economic power and world status of developing countries. China's voting power increase will strengthen cooperation between China and the Washington-based international lending institution.
The parents of these youngsters work in the factory while their children are tied to a workshop window to keep them safe
Chained: Two-year-old Chen Chuanliu was padlocked to a tree while his rickshaw driver father touts for customers in Beijing. After the picture was published a nursery boss offered the boy free childcare
Bewildered and tethered to a window these Chinese children reflect the desperate plight faced by migrant workers in the world's most populous country.
Unable to afford even the most rudimentary child care, the parents have to bring their youngsters to work with them.
These images were taken in a factory in the city of Jiaxing in the south east of the country where the parents toil for ten hours a day. There are an estimated 110million migrant workers in China aged between 16 and 40 years old.
But there is no creche where the children can be dropped off.
April 18: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, second left, listens to his Defense Minister, Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, as a rocket is paraded during National Army Day.
As the United States builds its case for stiffer sanctions against Iran, Tehran's foreign minister appeared to voice new enthusiasm Tuesday for a U.N.-backed nuclear fuel deal, calling it a chance to boost trust with the West.
The U.S. and its allies are locked in a standoff with Iran over its disputed nuclear program. Washington and other western powers fear Tehran is using the program to build nuclear arms. Iran denies the charges, and says its program only aims to generate electricity.
Iran initially rejected a 2009 U.N.-backed plan that offered nuclear fuel rods to Tehran in exchange for Iran's stock of lower-level enriched uranium. The swap would curb Tehran's capacity to make a nuclear bomb.
Tons of sand from deserts in China's interior blew into Beijing Saturday, shrouding China's capital in a yellow-orange haze that authorities warned made the air quality "hazardous."
There were few people out on streets where pedestrians could taste the dust. Many of those who had ventured from their homes were wearing facemasks, and some left footprints in the yellow film that had settled on the city's streets.
Beijing's weather forecasting bureau gave the air quality a rare "5," or hazardous, rating and added that it was "not suitable for morning exercises." Parks and open spaces are usually packed from early in the day with enthusiasts doing martial arts, ballroom dancing and other activities.
The sandstorms underline the environmental degradation investors identify as one of the long-term constraints on growth in China, and concern about its impact has made a less resource-intensive model of growth a priority for Beijing.
The government has spent millions of dollars on projects to rein in the spread of deserts, planting trees and trying to protect what plant cover remains in marginal areas.
But the battle is being fought against a backdrop of rising average temperatures and increasing pressure on water resources after three decades of booming growth.
The sandstorm hit Beijing around midnight, carrying huge amounts of dust and heading south east, the official Xinhua news agency said. In northern Changping district, the wind reached speeds of up to 100 km per hour (60 mph).
The swirling clouds of dust and sand had blanketed the interior provinces of Qinghai and Gansu, and western Xinjiang region, before sweeping over the capital, Xinhua said.
He is being hailed on the Internet as the nonchalant vigilante with nerves of steel.
A cyclist was caught by security cameras handing out some rough street justice when he saw two bag-snatchers making a quick getaway.
The riders apparently snatched a purse from a woman in the streets of Wenzhou, China, who ran after them shouting the Chinese equivalent of 'Stop thief!'.
Rather than turn around and give chase, the cyclist calmly stepped off his bike, and stood by it, waiting patiently.
When the robbers - fleeing the scene on a moped - reached him, he nonchalantly picked his bike up, and threw it at them - bringing them down to earth in a shower of sparks. Perhaps feeling a little like Clint Eastwood after his heroics, the cyclist then took a slow, menacing walk up to the bag-snatchers.
But when they scrambled to their feet and lunged at him, he quickly changed his mind, and promptly ran off - without his bike.
The CCTV footage, taken on December 20, shows the cyclist passing by the front of a hotel. According to website nowpublic.com, the thieves tried to chase down the biker but gave up and started running the other way.
But his bike-throwing tactic bought security guards enough time to arrive and capture the thieves - and one can be seen rugby-tackling one of the men at the end of the tape.
Although not captured on tape, the stolen red bag was returned to its owner - and the bike thrower left the scene quietly with his distorted bicycle.
2) With a move that would do Superman proud, he launches the bike
3) The thieves are brought to the ground, and are arrested seconds later
1) The cyclist sees the scooter coming towards him, and gets off his bike
There have been attempts to protest outside the court in Beijing
Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo (L) and his wife Liu Xia in Beijing in 2002. A lone protester displays his forehead after taking off a cap to reveal "oppose the dictators" in support of Liu Xiaobo
A protester holds a picture of Chinese writer Liu Xiaobo at a demonstration in Hong Kong in November
Xiaobo's wife Liu Xia reacts as she reads the court's official verdict outside the office of her husband's lawyer in Beijing today
Protesters hold pictures of Liu Xiaobo during a protest in Hong Kong
China may be a giant, but it is one with pygmy tendencies.
Beijing’s sentencing of its most prominent dissident to 11 years for his writings calling for political reform highlights the combination of fear and swagger that characterises the ruling Communist Party.
At every turn, the party demonstrates an almost pathological terror of its own people. That it can be afraid of a 53-year-old literature professor who is virtually unknown among his 1.3 billion fellow Chinese is a show of weakness.
At the same time it is a demonstration of the party’s self-confidence. As the world’s third-largest economy and a growing force on the international stage, it feels able to ignore protests from the European Union to the United States.
The sentencing shows how China feels less and less in thrall to the outside world as it treads a path towards superpower status.
Jailing Liu Xiaobo is the latest in a series of actions that reflect a China emboldened.
It was China’s “No” in Copenhagen that finally defanged a draft treaty that was in any case almost toothless. It was the first time Beijing – which usually prefers a low-profile role – had so overtly forced its stance on the rest of the world. It has consistently rebuffed Western calls to revalue the renminbi.
That Beijing feels comfortable with a more assertive role was underscored again just this week when it unveiled draconian new internet regulations that will create a “whitelist” of approved websites. That could place most of the internet off-limits to Chinese.
The authorities no doubt position this as part of a crackdown on pornography. In effect, they feel under no obligation to allow their people free access to the Internet lest they run across items deemed subversive – the charge on which Liu Xiaobo was convicted.
Beijing has ignored international criticism of its crackdown on Tibetans who rose up in protest last year. The Internet, mobile phone messaging and international calls remain inaccessible for residents of mainly Muslim western Xinjiang after a bloody anti-Chinese riot in July. A Xinjiang blogger has been detained without charge by the security.
There is every likelihood that in a China increasingly unruffled by international criticism and ever more in fear of its own people, more dissidents will follow Mr Liu behind bars.
Leading Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo will be tried Wednesday on subversion charges, his wife and lawyer said, more than a year after he was detained following his role in a bold pro-democracy petition.
"He will be tried on Wednesday," wife Liu Xia told AFP by phone on Monday.
"I have no hope whatsoever, I can't even attend the trial," she added.
The trial will take place at the Beijing Number One Intermediate People's Court, according to Liu Xia, who said she planned to wait outside the courthouse if she is denied entry.
"Under normal circumstances, the trial will be over in half a day," Liu's lawyer Shang Baojun said, putting the start time at 9:00 am (0100 GMT).
Shang explained that the defendant's wife could enter the courthouse only as a witness, and she had yet to be summoned.
Rights groups in China have said they fear that officials will rush the case through the courts during the Western holiday season in a bid to attract less global attention.
"We are seriously concerned that Liu will not get a fair and open trial, and his legal rights will not be respected," said Jiang Yingying, a researcher for China Human Rights Defenders, a network of activists.
Both the United States and European Union have urged China to free Liu and end the harassment and detention of political dissidents. Beijing says the calls are "unacceptable."
"We oppose any foreign forces using this as an excuse to interfere in China's internal affairs and judicial sovereignty," foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu told reporters last week.
The 53-year-old writer, who was jailed for his involvement in the 1989 Tiananmen pro-democracy protests, was arrested last December after co-authoring Charter 08, a widely circulated petition that called for political reform.
Shang said his client would face the charge of "inciting subversion of state power" -- related both to Charter 08 and to articles posted on the Internet after 2005.
The charge, which according to Shang carries a maximum jail term of 15 years, is routinely brought against those who voice opposition to the ruling Communist Party.
Rights groups accuse Beijing of abusing such charges to silence critics.
Charter 08, which was circulated online last year, calls for human rights protection and the reform of China's one-party communist system.
It has been signed by more than 10,000 people, including leading intellectuals, writers and dissidents, according to Chinese Human Rights Defenders.
Liu has spent much of the time since 1989 either in prison or under various forms of house arrest or tight monitoring. But he has still remained an irritant to Beijing with his writings calling for democratic pluralism.
Another prominent dissident, Ding Zilin -- the head of an activist group called the Tiananmen Mothers, who lost loved ones in the 1989 crackdown -- called for signers of Charter 08 to go to the court on the day of Liu's trial.
"Charter 08 was not drafted and initiated by Liu Xiaobo alone -- everyone joined in. So why arrest and try only him?" said Ding, a signatory herself, in comments made public by Human Rights in China.
"They will not allow us into the court to hear the trial, therefore we can join the trial outside the courtroom. This is what we can do. At least, we have to let Liu Xiaobo know that he is not alone."
A drag queen performer is seen at a bar in Dali, Yunnan province, November 23, 2009.
A drag queen performer applies makeup at a bar in Dali, Yunnan province, November 23, 2009.
Zhang Jianbo, a bar manager, blows up a condom as part of an event encouraging condom use by homosexuals in Dali, Yunnan province, November 26, 2009.
A drag queen performer has makeup applied at a bar in Dali, Yunnan province, November 23, 2009.
Drag queen performers talk at a bar in Dali, Yunnan province, November 23, 2009.
Drag queen performers dance at a bar in Dali, Yunnan province, November 23, 2009.
A Chinese city with one of the nation's highest rates of AIDS has opened a government-funded gay bar in an outreach effort that has stirred debate over the use of taxpayers' money.
The health department in Dali, a picturesque city on a lake in southwestern Yunnan province, funded the bar to reach out to China's increasingly open gay community. Dali is one of the 10 cities in China most affected by AIDS.
Same-sex transmission accounts for about one-third of new HIV infections in China, the minister of health said this month.
"Some readers think that it's a waste of taxpayer money, or an indirect endorsement of homosexual behavior," the Beijing News said in an opinion piece on Monday, citing letters to the editor after it ran an article on the bar over the weekend.
"They think if there were another way to reach out to the gay community, it wouldn't be necessary to open a bar."
Founder Zhang Jianbo hopes that the bar will be a public gathering place for gay men, especially from rural villages, who used to gather in a patch of woods near the historic town.
The bar offers sex education and free condoms, in addition to companionship, Zhang said in an interview with the newspaper.
Though funded by the government, the bar is staffed by volunteers from a local non-government organization that works to prevent AIDS.
"Each year, the Dali city government spends 20,000 yuan ($2,929) on treatment drugs for AIDS. So if our bar succeeds in reducing transmission, our 120,000 yuan will be well-spend," Jiang Anmin, deputy director of health in Dali, told the paper.
China's gay community for decades lived in fear of discrimination and prejudice, with the earliest gay bars often the targets of police raids and closures while homosexuals often married women to avoid family and social pressures.
China now has about 100,000 known AIDS cases, but some health experts worry that HIV could spread easily among migrant workers and other hard-to-reach sectors. The government has switched to a strategy of outreach to the gay community, as part of efforts over the past few years to fight the spread of HIV.
"In the past the government relied on NGOs to reach out to the gay community," Bing Lan, director of outreach organization Aibai, told Reuters.
"Now there's a change, in that some local health bureaus feel they are able to reach out to the community themselves."
But one unintended consequence of outreach efforts in parks, bars and bathhouses frequented by gay men, Bing said, is that some gay men now avoid those haunts for fear of being found out.
"Today I saw a blog, saying that when the bar in Dali has its official opening on World Aids Day, no-one will dare to go because there will be too many reporters there," he said.
In a visit expected to be marked by trade tensions, disagreements over Tibet and disputes over the value of the Chinese currency, one of the earliest diplomatic tussles involved how to spell -- and therefore pronounce -- the name of the 44th American president in Mandarin Chinese.
And the wrangling went all the way to the White House, or, as the Chinese have always called it, the "Bai Gong," meaning "White Palace." But the Obama administration was having none of that, reminding their Chinese hosts that the United States has no palaces, and insisting on using in official statements the term "Bai Wu," literally "White House."
"The Embassy is working to standardize the translation of common vocabulary in Chinese," said U.S. embassy spokeswoman Susan Stevenson in an e-mail, when asked whether President Aobama or President Oubama was coming to China.
"Ou-bama," she said, "conforms to the actual pronunciation of the name and is our preferred Chinese appellation." And she added, "By the same token, "Bai Wu" (which means "White House") is more accurate than "Bai Gong" (White Palace)."
But President Oubama living in the Bai Wu also more closely conforms to how the names are commonly rendered in Hong Kong and Taiwan, which may explain why, so far at least, official Chinese media, and the Chinese foreign ministry, continue to use the old familiar forms.
The president has been referred to here as "Aobama" since he first appeared on the national scene. And change, as he himself often says, is hard.
One foreign ministry official Chinese translator even appeared to be mocking the American translation efforts. He said he preferred "Aobama," because the Chinese character for Ao is used also for Australia and as part of Macao, and means "profound and deep." By contrast, "Ou" is the Chinese character used for Europe.
The official agreed that the pronunciation of "Oubama" may indeed be closer to the American pronunciation of the 44th president's name. But he said it sounded strange to the ear, reminding him slightly of the Japanese term "Obaasan," which is a rather unkind way of referring to an old lady ("Obaasan," while Japanese, is widely understood by Chinese on Taiwan and in Hong Kong).
What the translator did not mention, however, is that the "Ao" character has a lot of other less complimentary meaning -- which may be why the Chinese government prefers to use it for Obama. "Ao" can also mean "difficult to understand," "abstruse" and "obscure."
The translator also recalled that the White House versus White Palace dispute was an old one between the embassy and the foreign ministry here. He said the ministry had no plans to change for the moment, and would probably take its cue from Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency.
So for the moment, Chinese journalists covering the visit are left with dueling Chinese and American translations of both the American president's name, and the name of the place where he lives and works.
"I think any change will take time to work its way through," Stevenson said in the e-mail, recalling how long it took for "Peking" to become "Beijing." She added: "The U.S. government, however, has adapted this new vocabulary."
US President Barack Obama on Monday arrived in Beijing from Shanghai, for the second leg of his maiden state visit to China.
Obama arrived in China on Sunday on a three-day mission aimed at convincing Beijing that Washington is its partner, not its rival.
In a town hall speech in Shanghai, the US leader pushed for an unshackled Internet and expanded political freedoms as he sought to get around China's media curbs.
He also said the United States and China, two economically interlocked rivals, need not be adversaries, appealing to millions of Chinese web surfers on the first day of his first visit to what he termed "a majestic country". Obama's speech
"I have always been a strong supporter of open Internet use. I am a big supporter of non-censorship," Obama said, before flying to Beijing for talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao.
"I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger a society becomes," said Obama in a nation where communist authorities have for months blocked Internet sites such as Twitter, YouTube and Facebook.
Obama's decision to tap the power of the web was highly symbolic: the grassroots movement he built to win the White House in 2008 was largely built on Internet freedoms restricted by the "Great Firewall of China".
The president fielded questions from his audience of university students as well as Internet users, speaking on subjects ranging from "universal rights" and Taiwan to Chinese NBA basketball star Yao Ming.
Audience members, while showing great respect for Obama, rarely asked questions deviating from the official Chinese government line, and the forum appeared tightly controlled by the authorities.
The most interesting question -- on Internet freedoms -- came via email, and was read out to Obama by the US ambassador to China, Jon Huntsman.
Having been accused of downplaying rights concerns to appease China, Obama called for the observance of "universal rights" of political expression, religious freedom and free information everywhere.
"They should be available to all people, including ethnic and religious minorities, whether they are in the United States, China, or any nation," Obama said, though he noted that his own country was not perfect.
But the US leader did not specifically mention sensitive issues like China's rule over Tibet, after declining to meet exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in the United States before making his high-profile inaugural visit to Beijing.
"The notion that we must be adversaries is not predestined," Obama said, walking a fine line between standing up for US interests on trade and human rights and seeking Chinese backing on issues such as Iran and North Korea.
He leavened his call for expanded freedoms with praise for China as a "majestic country", marvelling at the "soaring skyscrapers" of Shanghai and the relics of China's "distant past" he hoped to see in Beijing.
The White House streamed the event on its website, which jammed several times but was visible on local servers. A live transcript was posted on the website of state news agency Xinhua, which appeared faithful to Obama's answers in English.
The broadcast on local Shanghai television was delayed by several seconds, but Obama's answers were audible under the simultaneous translation in Chinese.
China's communist authorities were taking no chances on security, with roads leading to the venue at Shanghai's imposing Science and Technology Museum closed to normal traffic and the area around the venue deserted. Uniformed security agents were deployed en masse.
The authorities also apparently kept close control on the students allowed to attend the meeting, selected by professors at Shanghai-area universities.
Obama later boarded Air Force One and flew to Beijing, where he was due to attend a private dinner with Hu.
After a day of talks and some sight-seeing, Obama will be honoured with the lavish pageantry of a state dinner.
Obama came to China hoping to convince its leaders that Washington was not trying to rein in its fast growth and growing diplomatic weight.
"The United States does not seek to contain China, nor does a deeper relationship with China mean a weakening of our bilateral alliances," Obama said in a speech in Tokyo on Saturday.
"On the contrary, the rise of a strong, prosperous China can be a source of strength for the community of nations."
But tough talk on the economy was looming.
A Chinese commerce ministry spokesman on Monday accused the United States of increasing protectionism and said American calls to let the yuan rise were "unfair".
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao (left) shakes hands with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il at Pyongyang Airport.Kim Jong Il (right) told Wen Jiabao that he was willing to take part in multilateral talks, state media reported
South Koreans watch a TV news program about Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, second from left, meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il, second from right, at the Seoul Railway Station in Seoul, South Korea, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2009. North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, a news report said Tuesday, as Kim expressed a conditional willingness to end Pyongyang's boycott of international nuclear talks.
Delegations from China (right) and North Korea (left) meet in Pyongyang
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao (R) shakes hands with Kim Jong Il, top leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), during a meeting in Pyongyang, capital of the DPRK, Oct. 5, 2009. North Korea is in the final stage of restoring its nuclear facilities, a news report said Tuesday, as leader Kim Jong Il expressed a conditional willingness to end Pyongyang's boycott of international nuclear talks.
South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities reached the conclusion after scrutinizing about 10 atomic facilities in North Korea since April when the communist regime vowed to restart its nuclear program in anger over a U.N. rebuke of its long-range rocket launch.
Pyongyang claimed the launch was a peaceful attempt to put a satellite into orbit, but the liftoff was widely condemned as a test of the North's long-range missile technology.
The report came as North Korean leader Kim Jong Il told Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao that his country was prepared to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks depending on progress in its two-way negotiations with the United States.
Kim's comments, carried by official North Korean and Chinese media, were the clearest sign yet that Pyongyang was readying to resume the six-nation talks it withdrew from after conducting missile tests in April and a second nuclear test in May.
The stalled talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the U.S.
In their meeting late Monday, Kim said that North Korea "is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, depending on the progress in its talks with the United States," China's Xinhua News Agency said in a report issued early Tuesday.
North Korea has long sought one-on-one negotiations with the U.S., claiming that it was compelled to develop nuclear weapons to cope with what it calls the "U.S. hostile policy" and "nuclear threats" against the regime.
Yonhap also cited the government source as saying that North Korea has conducted missile engine tests a few times recently on the country's west coast at a new missile launch site that is in the final stage of construction.
News reports said earlier this year that the North had moved a long-range missile to the new site for a possible test launch, but Yonhap said Tuesday that the missile has been moved elsewhere. The report did not elaborate.
Meanwhile, South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported that the youngest son of Kim Jong Il could be officially named an heir to the communist dynasty as early as next year. The paper cited a South Korean government report to a ruling party lawmaker.
Talk of who will take over North Korea after Kim Jong Il intensified after Kim reportedly suffered a stroke last year. The third son, Kim Jong Un, is widely believed to be the favorite.
China Premier visit to NKorea Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) is rich in content, weighty in outcome and significant in meaning, Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said on Tuesday.
Yang stressed that the three-day visit had achieved two major results -- further deepening the traditional China-DPRK friendship and boosting their good-neighborly relations of cooperation as well as promoting the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula in a positive way.
As an important country in Northeast Asia and a host of the six-party talks, China has once again played its due role and shouldered its due responsibility, he said.
The foreign minister said that China and the DPRK are two friendly neighbors, and this year marks the 60th anniversary of the establishment of their diplomatic relations and is the China-DPRK Friendship Year.
Wen was greeted at the airport by DPRK's top leader Kim Jong Il,top legislator Kim Yong Nam, and his DPRK counterpart Kim Yong Il.Hundreds of thousands of residents in Pyongyang gave the Chinese premier a warm welcome along the city's streets.
During their talks, both the Chinese and the DPRK sides agreed that the China-DPRK friendship forged by old generation revolutionaries is in line with the common wishes and fundamental interests of both the Chinese and DPRK people, said the foreign minister. Premier Wen had sincere and in-depth talks with the DPRK leaders on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and made much headway on the promotion of a nuclear-free Korean Peninsula, Yang said.
The commitment to the objective of making the peninsula nuclear free, and to maintaining peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in Northeast Asia as a whole, serves the interests of all the parties concerned, including the DPRK, Wen was quoted as saying.
To realize denuclearization on the Korean Peninsula through dialogue and consultation is a common understanding of the international community and the only way to solve the peninsula's nuclear issue, Wen said.
China is willing to make concerted efforts with the DPRK and other parties concerned to contribute to realizing the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and maintaining peace, stability and development in the Northeast Asian region, Premier Wen said.
Through bilateral meetings between the DPRK and the United States, the hostile relations between the two countries must turn into peaceful ones. The DPRK is willing to attend multilateral talks, including the six-party talks, based on the progress in the DPRK-U.S. talks, the DPRK side said.
US targets banks in effort to restart NKorea talks.
Obama administration also learn from previous Bush Administrator how to force NKorea into talk. The Obama administration's push to settle a tense nuclear standoff with North Korea is being spearheaded not by soldiers on a battlefield or big-name diplomats but by government officials knocking on the doors of banks throughout Asia.
American officials are traveling around Asia, targeting private banks that might have North Korean ties. They hope to block money that could be used for missiles and nuclear bombs and, ultimately, to drive North Korea back to stalled disarmament talks.
The strategy is simple, according to interviews with past and current U.S. officials responsible for implementing it. And, they say, it works, which has not been the case with tortuous nuclear negotiations with the North.
The officials tell bankers that North Korea uses its accounts to hide counterfeiting of U.S. currency, to launder money, to smuggle cigarettes and drugs. The banks could face potentially dire consequences if they are seen as helping illicit activities.
U.S. officials say bankers find their visits difficult to ignore.
"It's having an effect. We think that the word is out," said Philip Goldberg, President Barack Obama's point man on implementing new United Nations sanctions on North Korea. The effort encourages banks to "give heightened scrutiny to any transaction that may be coming through with a North Korean label on it."
Coincidence or not, as the United States steps up financial pressure, the North has begun making conciliatory moves, showing a new willingness to resume nuclear talks.
The Obama administration can point to a U.N. resolution that decrees financial sanctions against designated entities that may be involved in missile or nuclear weapons financing or proliferation. Victor Cha, Bush's former senior Asia adviser, said the resolution makes "a huge difference" in getting banks' attention.
The White House also has at its disposal a powerful cautionary tale about the dangers of dealing with the North: the story of Banco Delta Asia, a bank in the Chinese territory of Macau accused of helping North Korea launder money and other illicit activities.
The threat of the U.S. blacklisting BDA in 2005 effectively led to the North being severed from the international financial system, as institutions worried about jeopardizing their U.S. connections voluntarily stopped dealing with the bank and the North.
Even if they have little risk of being blacklisted, financial institutions try to avoid activities that would tarnish their reputations and scare away current or future customers.
