President Bill Clinton continues his extraordinary dialogue with the Chinese people today when he will be the guest on Shanghai Radio 990's weekly call-in programme, Citizens and Society.
Mr Clinton arrived in Shanghai last night following two groundbreaking televised debates in Beijing about freedoms in China, one on Saturday with President Jiang Zemin, the other with students yesterday at Beijing University.
His theme in his address at the elite university was that a country can only become great if it has the right to life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and the freedom to "debate, dissent, associate and worship" as people pleased.
He said he had come "to talk to you, the next generation of China's leaders, about the critical importance to your future of building a strong partnership between China and the United States. We want China to be successful, secure and open, working with us for a more peaceful and prosperous world".
The speech was described by White House aides as the most important of Mr Clinton's nine-day state visit to China, and he worked on it until 3 a.m. after a day sightseeing. The result was that the President appeared tired and his subsequent exchanges with the students, conducted at times with his chin in his hands, contained only muted criticisms of Beijing's human rights policies. He said he felt "a steady breeze of freedom" blowing through China but did not mention the continuing ban on political parties and pro-democracy demonstrations, the lack of press freedom or the arrest of dissidents.
Even as he spoke police in southern China were detaining a prominent dissident, Mr Wang Youcai, who with two others tried to register an opposition party last Thursday, according to a Hong Kong-based human rights group. Mr Clinton appeared taken aback by some critical questions about the US from students of the university which nine years ago was a ferment of pro-democracy dissent.
One student asked him about US arms sales to Taiwan, and how he would like it if China had a similar relationship with Hawaii. Mr Clinton replied that US policy was not an obstacle to peaceful reunification of China and Taiwan. Another wanted to know if his support for engagement with China was genuine, or "do you have any other hidden sayings behind this smile?" Amid laughter, Mr Clinton said: "If I did, I wouldn't mask it behind a smile. But I don't."
Asked what the US government was doing about human rights in the US, Mr Clinton pointed out that "we have the system to deal with" abuses, and went on to detail problems of drugs, crime and racial discrimination in the US, admitting: "We're still not perfect".
The tough questioning seemed to strike a chord with many Chinese. Two Beijing residents with whom I watched the debate on TV, both sympathisers with the students in 1989, were delighted to see American policy challenged, especially on Taiwan. Students interviewed afterwards at the university were unanimous in their appreciation of Mr Clinton's speech. Some thought the questions too aggressive, others that the President was weak in responding.
White House officials, eager to find a response to critics who objected to the President attending an official welcome on Tianan men Square, hailed the broadcasts as a major breakthrough.
The Assistant Secretary of State, Mr Stanley Roth, said the exchanges "will have profound reverberations" and "will be percolating within China for quite some time to come". A dissident, Mr Jiang Qisheng, jailed briefly after the Tiananmen Square crackdown, said they would "make China more free, more democratic", but "let's not exaggerate the impact. One cannot get fat by eating one or two spoonfuls of food".