Avoiding embarrassment at the Obama town hall

• Source: Global Times
• [21:25 December 02 2009]
• Comments

SPW: What kind of questions were able to be asked, and what were not?

Ni: For example, some students wanted to ask Obama how he was dealing with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, since they were competitors in the presidential election. This is a sensitive question. It's better not to ask things related to US politics.

The Taiwan question is crucial, too. One question on it was raised online, but it was not fully discussed.

SPW: How do you evaluate the questions raised by the seven students?

Ni: I regret some questions were not raised then. For example, those concerning the economy and climate change. It's a pity. The students could and should have done better.

SPW: How do you see the fact that former US President Bill Clinton was offensively questioned in Peking University?

Ni: The questions thrown to Clinton during his visit to Peking University in 1998 and those to former US president George W. Bush when he was at Tsinghua University in 2002 were all hard.

In fact, students asking offensive questions was not totally because they were young.

There are indeed some difference between southern Chinese and northern Chinese. Southerners know the facts more clearly, while the northerners are cleverer in my view.

The last question to Obama was comparatively hard. However, Obama seemed to find it relatively easy.

What's more, this was Obama's first visit to China, and Shanghai had to foreshadow the climax in Beijing.

There was no need to make both sides embarrassed, and stop our guests in their tracks. Indeed, it's hard for us to learn the art of questioning.