Visiting US first lady Michelle Obama held a meeting yesterday at the US embassy with Chinese educators and families, after her arrival there sparked a minor security alert.
People just outside the embassy began shouting as her motorcade pulled in, while Chinese police and men in gray sweatshirts and pants ran to subdue them. It was unclear what they were shouting about.
Obama is making a week-long trip to China that is focused on education and “soft” issues. US officials have said that the visit by Obama — who is accompanied by her daughters and mother — is not meant to touch on politics.
Photo: Reuters
Since arriving in the Chinese capital on Thursday night, she has played table tennis with Chinese students and toured the Forbidden City with her counterpart, Peng Liyuan (彭麗媛).
Yet she briefly trod political ground in a speech on Saturday morning at Peking University’s Stanford Center, calling for greater freedoms while refraining from calling out China by name.
“As my husband has said, we respect the uniqueness of other cultures and societies,” Obama told a crowd of about 200 students, most of whom were from the US. “But when it comes to expressing yourself freely, and worshipping 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.”
Photo: Reuters
“We believe that all people deserve the opportunity to fulfill their highest potential, as I was able to do in the US,” she added.
Yet the majority of Obama’s speech was devoted to encouraging US students to study abroad in China.
She touted the “100,000 Strong” initiative announced by US President Obama during his 2009 visit to Beijing, which aims to raise the number and the socioeconomic diversity of Americans studying in China.
After her speech, Obama held a virtual roundtable with a group of US students, then took a tour with her family of the Summer Palace, a former imperial getaway not far from Peking University.
In opening remarks at the education roundtable yesterday morning, she said that “education is an important focus for me.”
“It’s personal, because I wouldn’t be where I am today without my parents investing and pushing me to get a good education,” she said.
Obama was due to tour the Great Wall outside Beijing later in the day. She is scheduled to visit Xian, site of the famous ancient Terracotta Warriors and Chengdu, home to the country’s iconic pandas.
A new online voting system aimed at boosting turnout among the Philippines’ millions of overseas workers ahead of Monday’s mid-term elections has been marked by confusion and fears of disenfranchisement. Thousands of overseas Filipino workers have already cast their ballots in the race dominated by a bitter feud between President Ferdinand Marcos Jr and his impeached vice president, Sara Duterte. While official turnout figures are not yet publicly available, data from the Philippine Commission on Elections (COMELEC) showed that at least 134,000 of the 1.22 million registered overseas voters have signed up for the new online system, which opened on April 13. However,
EUROPEAN FUTURE? Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama says only he could secure EU membership, but challenges remain in dealing with corruption and a brain drain Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama seeks to win an unprecedented fourth term, pledging to finally take the country into the EU and turn it into a hot tourist destination with some help from the Trump family. The artist-turned-politician has been pitching Albania as a trendy coastal destination, which has helped to drive up tourism arrivals to a record 11 million last year. US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, also joined in the rush, pledging to invest US$1.4 billion to turn a largely deserted island into a luxurious getaway. Rama is expected to win another term after yesterday’s vote. The vote would
ALLIES: Calling Putin his ‘old friend,’ Xi said Beijing stood alongside Russia ‘in the face of the international counter-current of unilateralism and hegemonic bullying’ Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) yesterday was in Moscow for a state visit ahead of the Kremlin’s grand Victory Day celebrations, as Ukraine accused Russia’s army of launching air strikes just hours into a supposed truce. More than 20 foreign leaders were in Russia to attend a vast military parade today marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II, taking place three years into Russia’s offensive in Ukraine. Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and has marshaled the memory of Soviet victory against Nazi Germany to justify his campaign and rally society behind the offensive,
Myanmar’s junta chief met Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) for the first time since seizing power, state media reported yesterday, the highest-level meeting with a key ally for the internationally sanctioned military leader. Senior General Min Aung Hlaing led a military coup in 2021, overthrowing Myanmar’s brief experiment with democracy and plunging the nation into civil war. In the four years since, his armed forces have battled dozens of ethnic armed groups and rebel militias — some with close links to China — opposed to its rule. The conflict has seen Min Aung Hlaing draw condemnation from rights groups and pursued by the
RSS