Ten days before President Obama arrived in China, the U.S. government's massive advance party was upped by one: a member of the White House New Media team began to work with the U.S. embassy and Shanghai University officials on a November 16 town hall meeting where 400 pre-selected students would participate. The White House was under no illusion that the give-and-take would be free from the red pen of Chinese television and internet censors. The town hall was not broadcast on Chinese television.
But neither did they wish to pass up an opportunity to communicate directly with the Chinese people, a White House official said. This was the fourth iteration of the White House new media team's global engagement. It started in March with the president's YouTube message on Norwuz. Then came the president's town hall meeting with students in, Turkey, where the White House quietly partnered with a Turkish social media firm to promote viewing among young Turks. White House outreach for the president's speech to the Muslim world in Egypt was similarly extensive, and it included plenty of pre-speech negotiations with Arab television networks and internet sites.
The China gig was tricky, given the practicalities of Internet
communication in China and the reality of a very sensitive host
government. But something seems to have worked: of about 200,000 live
stream requests, 120,000 were from China. (67,000 were from the United
States.) The number of peak concurrent users suggested that there was
no sudden drop-off or bottleneck, which would have suggested a
concerted censorship effort by the Chinese government.
The official Xinhua site in China put out a transcript in real time. It was unfiltered at
first -- and only later was it updated to remove certain sections,
particularly when Ambassador John Huntsman reminded Obama of China's
massive Internet firewall.
The White House later recieved word from its embassy that its own Chinese government sources reported that the official Xinhua transcript received more than 50,000,000 page views. (Separately, the U.S. Embassy hosted a live chat about the event. generating about 6,400 unique hits from IP addresses in China.)"...And so I've always been a strong supporter of open Internet use. I'm a big supporter of non-censorship. This is part of the tradition of the United States that I discussed before, and I recognize that different countries have different traditions. I can tell you that in the United States, the fact that we have free Internet -- or unrestricted Internet access is a source of strength, and I think should be encouraged," Mr. Obama said.
The numbers aside, U.S. officials are looking at what they call the "long tail" of the town hall meeting. They hope that Chinese students and citizens share the video over peer-to-peer networks.
"Still, it is not an irony that escapes anyone that an American president gave what I consider to be a good answer on Internet freedom at an event in China and the Chinese government had a different message," an administration official said.
Thanks for a post that examines actual data, and provides a behind the scenes peek at the White House outreach effort.
After the onslaught of stupid "reporting" about bowgate, Obama being too "deferential", etc, this is a welcome relief. Thank you.
Marc,
Too bad Liz Cheney hadn't read this post before she blabbed on MTP this morning about all President Obama 'should have done to demand that the students be allowed to ask questions....' blah blah blah.
Between this post, and your colleague, James Fallows' post about Obama's Asia trip overall (including a breakdown on the behind the scenes negotiation for the townhall), it is like night and day from what was discussed by other "news" sources, i.e. washpo, nytimes, time magazine.
And at SheliaMarie: the fact that MTP has Liz Cheney on her program despite her repeated dubious assertions, is one of the main reason that I stopped watching that show, and other Sunday morning programs. Nobody really tries to fact check or push back against their guests' views and any substantive way. They just basically give them an opportunity to spew whatever nonsense that they can come up on the issues of the day.
"The town hall was not broadcast on Chinese television." This is COMPLETELY UNTRUE, Mark!
I was in Shanghai and watched the whole thing, paying particular attention to any indication of censoring...it was seamlessly presented.
There are forms of censorship in the US too. Just look at George Bush's choreographed 'Town Hall' meetings during his presidency, where only Republicans were invited and no unscripted questions were allowed. The censorship then was the US media THEMSELVES, which did more to censor reality than anything I've seen on my visits to China (though I'm not disputing that it happens there too).
We're NOT completely altruistic, and your lazy job of reporting that the event at the university wasn't broadcast is just another indication of how slanted the US press is every bit as much as we accuse the Chinese press of being.
Is it so surprising that massive numbers failed to pay attention to Obama? To sit around watching the Town Hall on TV or online is akin to sitting down to watch a fine evening of C-SPAN. I don't know at what time the Town Hall occurred, but to come home from a long day of work to watch a town hall is not an ideal form of relaxation. I would much rather tune in to the evening's TV drama to take my mind off of the pressures of work. And as far as Chinese students go, not only do they tend to be incredibly studious with little free time, very few that I know own TVs in their rooms. The next day's exam usually trumps a visit from the American president, even if it's Obama.
I understand that Barack Obama has huge appeal, but why must the Chinese be expected to be terribly interested in what he has to say? When last did most Americans pay attention to a state visit from Hu Jintao, Nicholas Sarkozy, Gordon Brown, etc.? What is so exceptional about the visit of an American president? Most Chinese I know are well-disposed towards Obama, but skeptical in general of politics.
spc...the Town Hall was broadcast at noon on television. The Chinese people I watched it with were fascinated by the whole idea that the US could elect a minority President. I've lived overseas for awhile and I can tell you that it is a common perception everywhere.
You are correct in wondering if Chinese people don't have better things to do with their time. The US is an abstract that most never give a second thought. I once stunned an interpreter who, when I marveled at the proliferation of McDonalds in China, asked me 'Do they have a McDonalds in YOUR country too?'. The US and its politics are of little concern to a country of 1.5 billion people
This story highlights the contrast in political ideologies, which translates into the rights of citizens to have an open exchange of ideas through the use of the internet. It is sad that many Americans take their uncensored use of the internet for granted; while many around the world do not have this luxury.