US envoy hits out at media for Obama China visit
U.S. ambassador to China hit out at negative U.S. media coverage of American President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Shanghai and Beijing, saying it failed to take into account significant progress on many important issues.
Although producing no breakthroughs on key issues, Obama’s first state visit to China that ended Wednesday was heralded by both governments as a net success.
mbt sale
The trip was the top news story in China, drawing strong interest from the Chinese public who, surveys suggest, are largely positive in their view of President Obama.
However, much of the U.S. media coverage was strongly negative, accusing Obama of failing to gain concessions on key issues such as Iran’s nuclear program and climate change, as well as being weak on human rights, the Associated Press reported.
Ambassador Jon Huntsman said the reports missed the fact that the visit had yielded important progress on cooperation in areas such as clean energy, military-to-military exchanges and stopping the spread of dangerous weapons.
“I attended all those meetings that President Obama had with President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao,” Huntsman said. “I’ve got to say some of the reporting I saw afterward was off the mark. I saw sweeping comments about things that apparently weren’t talked about, when they were discussed in great detail in the meetings,” he said.
Huntsman made the comments during a question-and-answer session with Chinese and American students attending an international relations program at the Peking University.
mbt
He said criticism about limited Chinese exposure for Obama’s remarks at a town hall-style meeting with students in Shanghai failed to consider the ubiquity of the Internet and blogging in China, where 350 million people use the Web.
“Go check some time and see how messages bounce around from Web site to Web site and blogger to blogger for a very long period of time and you’ll get a sense of what the communication revolution (in China) is all about,” Huntsman said.
Huntsman said Washington expects good will earned during the visit will translate into concrete achievements.
“Having achieved a positive atmosphere it is now important to begin implementing,” the Associated Press quoted him as saying.
