Beijing television ran a lengthy item yesterday on Barack Obama's declining domestic popularity in the US. Simultaneously in Shanghai, the US president was doing his best to boost America's approval rating with the Chinese in a US-style “town hall“ event.

“I'm a big supporter of non-censorship,” Mr Obama said in response to an online question on what he thought of the great Chinese internet firewall. “I think the more freely information flows, the stronger society becomes.”

But only a very small number of Chinese were able to hear his answer.

In contrast to the last two US presidential visits to China – George W. Bush in 2002 and Bill Clinton in 1998, both of whose words were broadcast live and widely to the Chinese public – Mr Obama's 60-minute question-and-answer session in Shanghai was heavily restricted.

Only the citizens of Shanghai were able to watch it live on local broadcasts. Elsewhere, Chinese citizens were theoretically able to view the event on the White House website, although many reported huge difficulties in accessing either images or sound via the site.

The irony was hard to miss. In spite of weeks of pressure from US officials to open the event to the public – wrangling that continued until the last minute – the Chinese held their ground. Yet in contrast to his two most recent predecessors, who criticised China for detaining dissidents and suppressing freedom of religion in Tibet, Mr Obama studiously avoided giving his hosts any explicit cause for offence.

Furthermore, Mr Obama's dextrous attempts to avoid provoking the Chinese were heavily censored. Phoenix television, a Hong Kong-based channel with broadcasts on the mainland, carried the first few minutes of Mr Obama's speech at the start of the meeting but cut to another item before he made a relatively generic pitch for universal values.

“We do not seek to impose any system of government on any other nation, but we also don't believe that the principles that we stand for are unique to our nation,” said Mr Obama in response to a question on whether there was a clash between America's tradition of diversity and China's belief in “harmonious society”.

Rather than mentioning Tibet, or the usual round-up of dissidents that has taken place in advance of Mr Obama's visit, the US president chose to talk about the importance of respecting the rights of children and women round the world.

“If we see certain societies in which women are oppressed . . . or there is violence towards women, we will speak out,” he said. “Now, there may be some people who disagree with us, and we can have a dialogue about that.”

Yesterday's event was the first of its kind by a US president. It also crystallised, somewhat awkwardly, the shifting balance of relations between the US and China. As he has done repeatedly so far on his seven-day tour of Asia, Mr Obama sought to tread a fine line between extending the hand of friendship and offer of co-operation to Beijing without giving US conservatives any ammunition to accuse him of “appeasing dictators”, or compromising American values.

It remains to be seen how Mr Obama's overtures are interpreted at home. But in Beijing, where he will now hold a series of meetings with Chinese leaders as well as conducting some mandatory tourism – taking in the Great Wall as well as the Forbidden City – the US president's words are likely to be taken as China's due.