Obama ended his maiden tour to China and went back to Washington to continue his normal White House life, with empty hands. Similarly, most Chinese continue their normal life, with empty hope for Obama to bring at least some discursive breakthrough in terms of basic human rights. From this perspective, Obama’s visit to China, frankly speaking, is disappointing. Obama merely mentioned the human rights issues on the joint news conference, but no concrete points were offered. He did impress me by saying that some principles were not unique to Americans but were universal. That’s it. Nothing else. Moreover, President Hu Jintao clearly declared that there were significant differences in relation to mutual understanding of such issues as human rights. Just as both the Times and the New York Times have precisely analysed, Obama’s meeting with Hu might be just a best chance for China to say no to America. For me, it was almost as though Obama himself had been successfully manipulated by China as a lovely and humble puppet.

However, Obama should know more about the terrible situation of the majority of Chinese with reference to basic human rights. The most recent focus in the media is the ‘black jails’ in which a disadvantaged people intending to express grievances to the government had been detained. These ‘black jails’ are actually widespread makeshift detention centers. A recent report published by Human Rights Watch has more detailed information about these jails in China. Even some Chinese media – tightly controlled by the government – have managed to report the issue in an indirect way. South Weekend, for instance, publicised a shocking case of a woman detainee raped publicly by a guard in such a black jail – of course, they can not be called ‘black jails’ by the Chinese media directly; instead, they have been referred to as ‘grey hostels’.

Anyway, if Obama is really concerned about healthy Sino-US relations, he should not turn his back on the terrible situation of Chinese human rights. From this angle, Obama’s tour to China was simply a gesture without genuine concern.