Inauguration reactions

An editorial in China’s Xinhua newswire raised fears about a reversal in Chinese-American relations that were strengthened under the Bush White House. The Strategic Economic Dialogues, one of the positive developments mentioned in the editorial, in addition to providing a forum high level discussions twice a year, has facilitated some pretty cool joint projects on green energy and sustainable development called EcoPartnerships.

President Obama ruffled some feathers in his inauguration speech by placing “non-believers” alongside Americans of various faiths, and for drawing a clear line on the lack of freedoms and the corruption that is endemic in many countries around the world. But some of those comments irked the media censors here.

In his inauguration address, President Obama said: "Recall that earlier generations faced down fascism and communism not just with missiles and tanks, but with sturdy alliances and enduring convictions."

That entire passage was retained for an English-language version of the speech that appeared on the website of state-run Xinhua news agency.

But in the Chinese-language version, the word "communism" was taken out.
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"To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history," the president said.

Once again, Xinhua included the passage in full in its English version, but the sentence was taken out of the Chinese translation.
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China Central Television, the country's main broadcaster, aired the speech live with a simultaneous Chinese translation.

But when the translator got to the part where President Obama talked about facing down communism, her voice suddenly faded away.

The programme suddenly cut back to the studio, where an off-guard presenter had to quickly ask a guest a question.

Censoring sensitive news reports is nothing new in China, where officials go to great lengths to cut critical material.

From the BBC News in Beijing.

The first step in tackling controversial issues is simply raising the topic and normalizing it so that it is more widely discussed in public and in the media. Of anyone, hearing those words come out of the President’s mouth is the best way to promote those issues. With time, there will be no prejudices towards different faiths, towards atheism, or towards gay, lesbian, and transgender people, so it’s good to hear those statements in Obama’s first speech as president.

The limits on free speech in China might be harder to crack, but slowly more and more controversial ideas are being openly discussed here as well.