china, the difficulty of understanding the feel and the trends of nuances of china from reading the output of those excellent people. we have a group of talented people and the third element of the paradox, i think the explanation is not what would often be assumed by many people in china which is some biased, some desire to hold china down and a predisposition against rendering a fully nuanced picture of china. how do you therefore accept with me that these three things are true. that it is a partial view of cha china that comes through and how do we unravel this? that is my goal to explain for

the next few minutes. the next step is to say what are we go tog explain or define here? the problem to be interpreted is not a bias or tone in the u.s. media or public life. in deed, when i hear cautionary talks from people in the media or public affairs about what they fear as china bashing, i try to remind them of the role that china laplays in u.s. publ discourse. in the presidential debates, there was only one mention of kind na china in chose debates. when they thought that it was unsustainable in terms of debt.

president obama's state of the union speech, saying that the chinese can have the drive and so to can the u.s., perhaps the most important metric as you all know, the congressional elections happening this fall are fought around the country. i bet you would not find more than one or two of the 435 congressional relations this fall in which china was in the top five issues. it is a bit early divided case in which china was not part of the u.s. national debate. but if there is fear of & tie chinese tone, there is little evidence of it in the course of u.s. politics. rather i would say, the problem to explain in u.s. china coverage is something you can dd define this way. a measure of the adequacy in

rendering a certain topic is whether being in a country, spending time there, feels and seems different from having read about it before. the more there is that gap or failure to impress, there is some difference in reading about a place and living there. i think there is one when it comes to china, the feeling of being there is more complicated than one gets in the press. i would say a few things that most foreigners resident in china recognize apart of the realities of china which is very, very hard to infer from reading the press cough ridcove. one is the scale of variety of china. many people recognition that it is often less a country than it is a continent.

with the nature of the university system or evresolution of politics and the other things that many of you have talked about. it is everything is working great for china or china is about to fall apart. the fact that both of those things are probably true. almost every trends meeting a

count countertrend. i did a piece where i put in the government paper saying the situation for china's environment is grave and with positive developments and both of those things are true. it is grave and there are positive developments and conveying that tension is part to do in life. a few more in this litany. everybody living in china recognizes the unevenness of political control within china. there are certain regions or subjects that are very, very tightly controlled. there are many aspects of chinese life where it would be better if there were sometimes of control. i would put traffic in this category. that range is hard to convey. there is within daily life in

china recognized there the distinction between liberty and democracy. it seems to me that is among many chinese people there is a small demand for mediate increases in democracy but a significant demand for increases in personal liberty and choice and discussion. that is a distinction that comes through. and finally to round out the list of thing that is are obvious on scene and hard to conv convey, the emotions that we have hard about today, national pride, national success, the mixture of confidence and i insecurity which is true of china at the moment and is hard to infer from reports about chinese arrogance or resistance to foreign powers.

so i could go on, but the argument to this point is there is a huge reality of china that a first rate press corp has a hard time explaining. let me go to the one that i think is the real fact. first would be that reporters are biased. that they don't like seeing the complexities of china and they are deciding to have a simple view to present to audvenses. i think this is not true. there are countries in the world that i won't name where i think the foreign press is unhappy. i would say there is an interesting subset here. i would not -- i respect the people who are "new york times" reporters in china but i am glad

i am not one of them. they are viewed as a branch of diplomacy. and the chinese government gives them a harder time, that is the people with the bgest fdibigges megaphone have the hardest time. it is a case of one that the "new york times" is not true fort press in general. is it bias of editors back in the home offices here? i say yes, but not in & tan anti-chinese way. the news is boiled down, and there is a pressure to have things be somewhat more blunt. is it a shift in the structure of the news business? yes, i think this is a profound f factor. there has been less range of information that comes across.

the pieceures in the news business are important ones. for another time, i think that is chinese government is good in many ways and bad in telling its own story worldwide. and i could say more, but i'm building up to what i think is the real reason for the barriers in perceptions to the press which is that the nature of reality in china now is so huge cont contradiction that by definition is going to be distorted through any kind of lens through the press. the only way to convey this is to bolster this in other kinds of ways. there are lots of ways people

around the world look at the u.s. they have the whole range of signals. a good part is there are lots of other channels for understanding china. there are 1000 new blogs every day and these things make a difference. it opens every new channel of communication we can.

while it is boring to say that human connections here, people have a view of the united states which is more or less accurate around the world. the reality of minute by minute changing china is matching more to what we see in the press, [ applause ] thank you for those remarks. my experience reinforces your impression. when i served in beijing, it was a first race u.s. press corp. they were not biased toward china, they were stimulated by the opportunity to cover china.

and yet the americans coming to china were reporting that their impressions were all wrong. i would confrent them with this. the answer they gave me was interesting. it wasn't editorial bias, it was the assumptions about what american readers wanted to read about china. it turned out, that if you wrote stories about the negative aspects of china, you got front-page treatment if you wrote about other areas, you got -- if you were covered at all, in the 23rd page of the business section. and journalists are human beings. they want their stories on the front pages. so the result was stories that presented one aspect of china to the point that was distorting in

terms of the way that china was. it wasn't because of bias on the part of the journalists. >> i think that is a very important point which i meant to touch on. and now you have given me the opportunity to. it is a particular factor for the "new york times" and wall street journal perhaps. they feel that as newspapers of record for the western world, that stories about political representation they need to cover. and we recognize this as part of the reality of china, but it becomes a question of proportion and i think the analogy would be if coverage of the u.s., 30% of the coverage of the u.s. was good guantanamo and abu ghraib, they are part of the record in the past decade. they are not 30% of the u.s. reality and it is because i think it is the particular position of people newspapers of

record for the u.s., they feel as though they have to register for these things and there is only so much room to cover things in kichina gentlema. >> i want to add one point. i have a lot of respect for my clee colleagues, but they are one member of the public. so if the level of public understanding is still low, it is hard to imagine that only jur journalists could become sophisticated person overnight by penetrating into a foreign country. >> it is a problem for diplomates as well if we warrant properly prepared. that touches on the question i want to ask you about. i was in china 30 years ago at the time we established relations. and at that time, we had a 20 year gap when chinese can't come to the united states to study or

learn. i would say that the chinese understanding of the united states was very, very low. from technical questions to what the country was really like. that has changed a lot over the last 30 years. my question is, if you were to look at today, would you say the average chinese, have a better understanding of the united states or do americans average americans have a better understanding of china? 30 years ago it was all on the u.s. we had a better understanding of china with the miss stetakes th might have made. but we were -- we had been devoting more attention to china. where does it stands now? does having hundreds of thousands of students here has this resulted in a china

understanding that is better than what we have right now? committ commen? >> i think yeah. especially raight now, they hav an understanding about the united states. it is not only getting the information source, but also accessing the internet information from your signs. about even covered in english, but maybe in ten minutes it is quickly translated into chinese. it is a log on the chinese website. so that is more information from the united states. yeah, but right now, you know, you just mentioned the newspaper

covered the china story. >> it is mostly the chinese audience. it is the same thing. >> maybe is why you raised it up. i think the level of understanding demanded right now, for the two countries to have and for the people to have about each other hasris ricriha

much. and relations between the two countories as well as the two countries are changing all the time as being reflected over the past few years, so i think we are juggling with that past of cupping up with the changes. coming here, and having all of us sitting together, we are at least one step forward. >> can i say something quickly? a surprising thing is i've spent a lot of time on u.s. two shanghai flights. a number of people i think there is a pool of first-hand knowledge about china in the american midwest for the business deals. you see young american students all over china what worries me is the political elite of each country is ignorant of the

other. they have a lot of connections but the political elite is working on both in my experience. >> i would like to open the floor for question. but in the interest of fairness, for the first ten minutes or so, could you di your questions please to our panel that just presented? and then we'll have 15 minutes when we can open it up more j n johnrjoh generally. let's begin. >> all right. [ inaudible ] >> i have enjoyed the impressions very, very much and i agree the media in china is beco

becoming dynamic and open and better informed and all that. but i have a question, it is our understanding with respect to domestic coverage of media in china, that there is still a big role for the party and for their to be instructions on what can be reported, how it can be reported, how it should be spent and that kind of thing. i wonder ed if you could commen about how that interplays. you have the competing dynamics going on. the market forces, the demand for information and the new media going on. but you still have this traditional mechanism that is trying to also help shape and influence media and does that also of course affect perceptions and reporting on the u.s. and international relations as well. ? yes, no one is denying the fact

there is still influence of the states in the chinese media. both in the state media and also those who are not so called state owned. however, i have to say, something that political sensitivity of a story usually is being regarded as a taboo if you know, political sensitivity label is being put on that story. but, i see more and more chinese journalists, many of my colleagues included take it as an opportunity to investigate even further into the stories. because eventually as a journalist, we need to be well informed and understand what these stories are about. we do not want to complain

because it really doesn't work. we don't want to you know just using -- excusing for us not to work hard enough. we can well use that ifor not working hard enough and still being a honor roll journalist. and i do not want to sound like propaganda here, but i really need to provide the other side of the story. here we have this side of the story most of the time. i think it is getting more and more open. and journalists are debating with editors about why we shouldn't cover more. and what are the stories related to the stories we can do? i think change is happening on the ground.

and i hope our colleague has covered this part of the story. >> yes, jerry? >> identify yourself, jerry, we all know you, but. >> his point is one i wanted to make earlier i mentioned a statement. we have to face the question of the differring degrees in non transparency between u.s. society being reported on and chinese society being reported on. we've heard a lot of encouraging statements this morning about the rapid extent to which in some respects china is becoming a more open society. but we have heard about how uneven it is and i think the

chinese government through its non transparent policies in some areas has made its own appearance in the world more negative than it need be. i take part from time to time in advising defendants and families in state security cases secret cases. national security as well as certain democracy and other things. often because of the chinese government's insistence on absolute in some cases, there aren'tvincing ways, but if you keep them secret, the world makes adverse inferences.

even they can't do anything but note the complete black out. and there are obvious points in terms of now many people does china execute a year, why does the government keep such a basic fact one of its closely guarded state secrets? damaging policies that hurt china's own appearance independent the world. we talk about how good our journalists are in china, and i agree. i deal with them quite often ten. but we bring to the party, certain attitudes, values, experiencing we'll talk tomorrow about individualism, versus the group. human rights whatever. and historically just to go back to the way we began today, i

thought of the 16th century western abserve eabobservers fr and portugal who saw chinese justice in action and came away with a good report. they were impressed why they came from the in quisituation. and if a chinese mag straiggist imposed pour tou ed torture, it public. it wasn't in the secret chambers, by the 19th century you had more european observers. also chinese justice hadn't changed. it was still a system with limb limb limits but the system was condemned by and large. why? because england has gone through two revolutions for the rights

of man in the 17th century. and america had gone through its revolution and the bill of rights emerged from that. and from their view, chinese justice looked very different. >> i will say on the first point about -- i agree and i did an really in the atlantic called, "their own worst enemy". where the reality of the chinese government seems more positive on the ground than when you read about it because of the way many of these principles are explained or not. as china gets more involved.

>> we are seeing the chinese the young generation have more understanding towards the u.s. how do you feel china's power will influence the american

society? >> i think if the soft power is projected in the current form it will not do china very good. it is still written. to the extent that it has that tone, it will be with the onion in u.s. media as opposed to being an element of power. >> a couple of years ago they published a paper that asked people to pay attention to the chinese soft power.

i would like to say we have that but i would like to say the power is fragile. because it is influenced by politic politics we have a lot of sensitive elements. that is one point. the second point is you just mentioned the media is state owned. but also the media in china has chan changes. so, you just mentioned the global times, they are attached to the urgencies. yes for example, the shanghai belonged to the dailies.

so that is a media group. but, the type of cover story is totally different. global times different than the dailies. that is big changes. i don't think he will get a lot of money. big changes. >> just to follow up, just to follow up, that i noticed very interesting phenomenon going on in china which of course have a lot of influence on the editorial policy and reports being done. once again they have two versions. one is the chinese version which is the most nationalistic paper in the country and they take pride in that. they are distinctioni in that

sense. the english version is one of the most open-minded newspapers from china. by the way, i'm working for the english edition. but, also i love and enjoy reading the chinese version as well. so, i think there are sophisticated business calculations going on in the chinese media about what to cover and how to cover it and how to follow up on the stories. just to provide the more complications to the perceptions you have about the media. >> i have comments to that. oh sorry, you mentioned allowing the transparency about the government but we have little bit of changes. a couple of years ago the state council accomplished the

regulations. information we have very institutionalized channel to access the government information. but they have some conflict with the so called national security protecting law. trying to change the national security law, trying to make the law to match the open -- information regulation you might know coming from that. >> well, certainly we all notice that china's strive to change the image the latest development. but i think what china has been republicaned in t respected in the community largely still with the economic miracle, not just of china's value system still very

confusing. the power is a value system. we present to the international community. we talk here, human rights, religious freedom and all kind of media freedom. china is not famous in this area. a lot of things should be done in terms of a political system. this is a system which belongs to a small club. i don't see that. >> did you have a question or comment? >> yes, in the rear? philadelph philadelphia inquirer, we are told it is hard to get data in

china. and also, if you could speak to the question of how you think young people and student opinions and did you sample young people that were not students. so how young femalepeople's ide most affected in terms of attitudes towards the u.s. is it from reading global times in chinese or trolling the internet and do they read anything from chinese correspondents in the united states about what going on beyond our big cities? >> okay yes, thank you. you give me an opportunity to mention the data source, it is pretty hard to get data because i have a lot of friends, i get data from different sources. the pbt i presented here i just

have three different ways from sore ren 7 to 10. but we public the data on their website, but didn't do the data research about chinese student attitude toward the united states. so i do the data by myself. let's take questioning about, about whether or not my view sample rate or not rate of global times no. but, some data we cover the

chinese young people their age is over 18 years old, to 30s. especially the last part of my presentation about how -- what the chinese students concern with united states product does not come from student. come from all generation, their ages over 80 years old. but two of my presentation they all come from the students. over 80 years old and most high school students but most are college and university students. >> thank you. yeah? >> i would like to follow up on that. for the students that have never been to the united states

before, i am wondering all the students have never been to the united states before and are are there studies that have looked at changes in attitudes perhaps from having spent time in the united states? >> that is a good question. i have data about this. but i didn't present here. so, i didn't do some close research about what kind of -- which group of students we have experienced in the united states but i can do that. >> we did have data, i also did recently compete a survey in shanghai. but it is only small the size. but we are going to do a very big one. but i think in general, it is positive views about the country. so again, education is most important the way to change people's minds.

yes, there are always exceptions. some of them are u.s. educated but it is more and more people it presents a broad trend and a critical mass. i think we should not be too clinical in this area. >> all right two fingers here. >> we keep using the term, "positive impact" on u.s. china relations. do we mean what are improve and make smoother u.s.-china relations? or what will enhance both sides on how we should deal with each other. there is a big difference. sometimes what you learn about a country makes you less attractive to it. not more. i remember 1971, we had a left

wing radical open-minded. student group of graduate students studies asian studies from harvard and other places. they went to china, they were so pro-china, pro revolution, but, visiting china had a disoh lu lugsing impact on them. these guys were asking too many good questions. they found william f. buckley was a nicer guest. he liked the things that they had. he had his own views before he got there. so, you have to ask, what is our goal, i hope our goal is enhanced mutual understanding what will come from that depends on what it is we observe?

>> yes, i agree. >> professor? >> i don't have a question, just a quick comment. two things that -- i'm in the department of international relations. two things that we have done that we are proud of, one is a that the center under the leadership of the professor here, just passed we have helped to train u.s. federal government officials. the good thing is that we have access and good working relations with top scholars in china who know them and speak english as you have seen today and tomorrow. we have good working relations with them.

so, i think this is a good opportunity for the american officials to have a chance to go to china and have first-hand information in china to help them know more about china. the second thing is our department of international relations, we will take the first batch of students we have offered the program in english and we have sent out 46 admissions to students from 23 countries who don't speak chinese, most have never been to china before. they will spend two years there. we have fellowships to help them and one of the applicants is from berkeley, one is from chapel hill, we have students from the u.s. and we have also a lot of students from developing countries.

i think this is something that we do, we hope that their stay in beijing setting up connections knowing more about china will help with their future career you know, which must have something to do with china. >> yes, i have a point. the data is from certain areas that the professor just mentioned. my e-mail you guys has my e-mail. okay. >> over here on the right? >> i'm an international student and i came here two years ago. i'm so fwlad to sglad to see th more communication between the use. i am a student starting here in

the united states, so i'm wondering whether each of the panelists have suggestion to students like us to promote communication and cooperation between china and u.s. relations, do you have suggestions that how we can do our job better? >> well, welcome to the center as an internist. seriously. it is a privilege. i want to respond to professor's remark. i think the definition of positive, i think two major powers and all ways conflict tensions and wrong predictions. but i think the bottom line is when crisis occurs, forces to prevent that crisis, the bottom line is the military conflict. i think it should be viewed up

to the forces to to a serious exte extent. the rise in leadership and the leadary's families study in the united states or the economic interest, all of these things make the two countries have so many forces to prevent this from occurring. but we can ask more to have more communication, or exchanges to really make us like a country like the uk or canada. but i think we need to have that kind of thinking, so have the dot tbottom line and high goal. >> okay. my suggestion is, you should merge into the united states society especially daily life.

i give you an example. a lot of young students they all like to take baths in the morning not in the evening. but for the chinese student it is unbelievable but you accept that. if you cannot get into the united states that daily life, they cannot get respect. that is very important. i don't think that we can understand the united states better, but you can have communication with the people coming from different levels of the united states society. >> it is important i think to be involved with and working. because, there is the view that there is a u.s. conspiracy against china. i ask what is the compound?

evil forts forcing facing the u states. and it sounds like you have a clear plan. but we are very close with the policy-makers and we do not sense concerns like this. it is complete nonsense. we also prevent this again, i agree with you. i mention about the professor's argument. it apart of society. yeah, okay. >> very brief note on two questions, one is the question regarding the lady raised. i think it is wonderful. we also have interns working for us at cctv and we see them growigrow ing day-by-day. it is a wonderful feeling, but it is wonderful to come to these

kind of panels to learn more about china. it is wonderful to read the newspapers and books, but it is very, very important to forget the information they have read and feel it themselves. i think it is important for them not to be preoccupy ied or bein educated by the perception when they are in china. and just one quick note for mr. cohen, it is great to see you here. i think china is struggling with the issue of how to become power. that is a day-by-day struggle and there for, other issues related to china's power, it is also think the list of consideration, but there are so many questions chinese considerate the same time. i agree with you the challenges that they have of so called

glowing global. my home information service is the 24 hour news channel for cctv and we broadcast here. one challenge is the credibility, there has been d k decades of discredibility associated with the chinese press and we have to turn that around. it is very hard. especially when you have partners working in the u.s. and also, that is why i'm happy to see the students you have the exchange and you want to work in each other's country because you know, there are still limited powers in china who can speak perfect english not to mention how many of them have had the chance to travel abroad and stay there for a few years not to mention how many have been stay ing there before they do this

international broadcasting back in china. i think we face many challenges. >> we're out of time. >> real quick, i think former wilson center, i think you said you were in missouri, we have a big city to big city relationship. i interviewed the president of a chi neez think tank. he had commented and said the best thing he did in the united states was to buy an open greyhound bus ticket which took him all over the united states. we tend think we see, not so

much getting at the issues that are hard to access, but i hope in this -- you have that chance to visit the real america. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> the senate judiciary committee votes this morning on the nomination of elena kagan to be an associate justice on the supreme court. live coverage is on c-span 3 at 10:00 p.m. -- 7:00 a.m. eastern. -- at 10:00 a.m. eastern. you can find that that c-

span.org/kagan. president obama yesterday called on senate republicans to support an extension of unemployment benefits. a procedural vote on the measure was scheduled this afternoon with senate leaders expecting the 60 votes needed to move the bill for per this is less than 10 minutes. >> good morning, everybody. right now, across this country, many americans are sitting at the kitchen table and scanning the classifieds, updating their resumes or sending out another job application hoping that this time they will hear back from a potential employer. they are filled with a sense of uncertainty about where their

next paycheck will come from. i know the only thing that will entirely free them of those worries, the only thing that will fully lift that sense of uncertainty is the security of a new job. to that end, we all have to continue our efforts to do everything in our power to spur growth and hiring. i hope the senate acts this week on a package of tax cuts and expanded lending for small businesses where most of america's jobs are created. we have a lot of work to do to make sure that we are digging ourselves out of this tough economic whole that we have been in. but even as we were to jump start job growth in the private sector, even as we work to get businesses hiring again, we also have another responsibility to

offer emergency assistance to people who desperately need it. to americans who have been laid off in this reception, we have a responsibility to help them make ends meet and support their families even as they are looking for another job. that is why it is so essential to pass the unemployment insurance extension that comes up for a vote tomorrow. we need to pass it for things -- for men like jim who is here with me today. he works at a parts manager for a hundred dealership until two years ago. he posted resumes everywhere. he has gone door to door looking for jobs. he has not gotten a single interview. he is trying to be strong for his three young kids, but now that he has exhausted his unemployment benefits, it is getting harder to do. we need to pass it for women

like lesley lost her job at a fitness center last year and has been looking for work ever since. she is eligible for only a few more weeks of unemployment. she is doing what she never thought she would have to do, she is turning to her father for financial support. we need to pass it for americans like denise who was laid up from a real-estate agency earlier this year. she has been interviewing for jobs but so far nothing has turned up. meanwhile, she is falling further behind on her rent and with unemployment benefits set to expire, she is worried about the future. we need to pass it for all the americans who have not been able to find work in an economy where there are five applicants for every opening. they need emergency relief to help them pay the rent and cover their utilities and put food on the table while there are looking for another job. for a long time, there has been

a tradition under both democratic and republican presidents to offer relief to the unemployed. that was certainly the case under my predecessor when republican senators voted several times to extend emergency unemployment benefits. right now, these benefits, benefits that are often a person's sole source of income while they are looking for work are in jeopardy. i have to say that after years of championing policies that turned a surplus into a deficit, the same people that had no problem spending hundreds of millions of dollars now say we should not offer relief to middle-class americans like jim, or lesley, or the knees who really need help. over the past few weeks, a majority of senators have tried three times to extend emergency relief on a temporary basis.

each time a partisan minority in the senate has used parliamentary maneuvers to block a vote denying millions of people who are out of work much needed relief. these leaders in the senate who are advancing a misguided notion that he emergency relief somehow discourages people from looking for a job should talk to these folks. that attitude i think reflects the lack of faith in the american people. the americans i hear from in letters and town hall meetings, americans like lesley ann and jim and denise are not looking for a handout. they desperately want to work. right now, they can't find a job. these are honest, decent, hard- working folks who have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own and who have nowhere else to turn on less -- except

unemployment benefits. tomorrow, we will have another chance to offer them that relief, to do right by not just the gym and lesley and denise but all the americans who need a helping hand right now. i hope we seize the opportunity. it is time to stop all the workers laid off in this recession hostage to washington politics. it is time to do what is right, not for the election, but for the middle class. we have to stop what the emergency relief for americans out of work. we have to extend unemployment insurance. we need to pass the tax cuts for small businesses and extend landing for small businesses. times are hard right now. we are moving in the right direction. i know it is getting close to election but there is a time when you put elections aside and that is -- and this is one of those times. that is what i hope members of congress on both sides of the

aisle will do tomorrow. thanks very much. >> do you agree with the naacp resolution of the tea party? [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2010] >> in a few moments, today's headlines and your phone calls live on "washington journal." at 10:00 eastern, a hearing on the role of the interior department on the oil spill. department on the oil spill.