Freedom of speech -- Internet Freedom is presupposed -- Michelle Obama's remarks to Beijing, China young people (March 22, 2014)

as reported by Alexander Yuan, Associated Press -- www.nytimes.com/ online posting: On the second day of a weeklong trip to China with her two daughters and her mother, Mrs. Obama, the first lady of the United States (FLOTUS), spoke to an audience of Americans and Chinese at Peking University, and in the middle of an appeal for more American students to study abroad, she also talked of the value for people of hearing “all sides of every argument.” “Time and again, we have seen that countries are stronger and more prosperous when the voices and opinions of all their citizens can be heard,” she said. The United States, she said, respected the “uniqueness” of other cultures and societies. “But when it comes to expressing yourself freely,” she said, “and worshiping as you choose, and having open access to information — we believe those are universal rights that are the birthright of every person on this planet." The forthright exposition of the American belief in freedom of speech came against a backdrop of broad censorship of the Internet by the Chinese government. The government polices the Internet to prevent the nation’s 500 million users from seeing antigovernment sentiment, and blocks a variety of foreign websites, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The authorities compel domestic Internet sites to censor themselves. Criticism of China’s top leadership is quickly deleted and is considered to be of particular concern to the censors. Obliquely, Mrs. Obama drew attention to this by making a comparison with the situation she and President Obama face in the United States. “My husband and I are on the receiving end of plenty of questioning and criticism from our media and our fellow citizens,” she said. “And it’s not always easy, but we wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.” The White House has stressed that Mrs. Obama’s trip to China during the spring break of her daughters, Malia and Sasha, is intended to highlight the importance of education, and foreign exchanges in particular. Mrs. Obama appeared at the Stanford University complex at Peking University, where she spoke to an audience of several hundred American students studying in China and some Chinese students who had studied in the United States. The president of Peking University, Wang Enge, welcomed her, and the new American ambassador to China, Max Baucus, who is a graduate of Stanford and its law school, also spoke.