Obama lands in China
- Source: Global Times
- [02:52 November 16 2009]
- Comments
US President Barack Obama arrives in Shanghai on Nov. 15, 2009 to begin his first state visit to China.
By Qiu Wei
US President Barack Obama arrived in Shanghai last night on his maiden tour of China – a four-day visit that will usher the pair into an "era of consul-tation" as the two nations now share a comparatively equal footing in their dialogue, analysts said.
Obama is due to meet with Chinese youth in the city this afternoon. He will take questions from the audience that includes students from several universities and the online community, according to a statement on the White House website.
The online community in China has been submitting questions on websites including the website of the Xinhua News Agency, Xinhuanet, and the website of the US embassy in Beijing.
Xinhuanet, which will stream the event live, collected more than 3,200 questions from Internet users over the weekend and set up a page for the event.
"Holding the event in Shanghai is symbolic, as the Shanghai Communique was signed here and helped pave the way for normalization and the first 30 years of formal diplomatic relations," the White House statement said.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of diplomatic ties between China and the US.
Obama will fly to Beijing later today for cultural activities and talks with Chinese leadership, including President Hu Jintao, US embassy spokesper-son Susan Stevenson told the Global Times.
An undergraduate student surnamed Liu, who majored in economics at Fudan University in Shanghai, said he would watch the meeting on television, believing Obama "would and has already brought some positive changes to Sino-US relationship."
Zhang Luyun, 50, a manager of a State-owned enterprise in Beijing, said he would follow Obama's trip in China, which has been widely discussed in the media for days. "I hope some tangible achievements can be made, despite trade friction between the two in the past few months," he said.
Obama played up the friendly relations a day before he set foot in China.
