BEIJING — The BBC television report was airing a clip from Wednesday’s Obama-Hu news conference at the White House on the touchy topic of human rights. “A lot still needs to be done,” Chinese President Hu Jintao started to say. And then the television report went black.
Hu’s state visit to the United States has prompted saturation media coverage in China, with largely upbeat reports heralding, in the words of one newspaper headline, “a new chapter in relations.” But largely missing from the official Chinese media reports of the trip — and from the foreign television spots that are subject to government censorship — has been the back-and-forth between Presidents Barack Obama and Hu over human rights.
At the news conference, after first avoiding a reporter’s question, Hu made what was considered an unusual allowance, saying China needed to make more progress in protecting its citizens’ individual freedoms.
Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, mentioned only in passing that Obama and Hu held a joint news conference.
Much of the coverage in China centered on the pageantry of the state visit, including the 21-gun salute, the rope line and the fact that one of Obama’s daughters was on hand to greet the Chinese president.
Earlier this week, Chinese media gave prominent coverage to Hu’s written answers to questions from The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal — reflecting how little Chinese actually hear from their own leaders outside of formal speeches. The Washington Post
