Dear Mr. President:

I’ve heard that you care for the voices of web users. I’ve also noticed that you requested a direct dialogue with web users to answer their questions and concerns during your visit to China last November. Your attention to web users has encouraged me to write to you. I am an ordinary web user from China. What I want to talk to you about is the US’ arms sale to Taiwan, which has raised a heated discussion on the Internet in China. I sincerely hope this letter reaches you, and that you would be able to hear the voice of an ordinary Chinese web user and his wishes for reunification and peace and his nation. 
In your speech to Chinese youth in Shanghai you said, “the strength of the 21st century is not a zero-sum game, the success of a country to another country should not sacrifice the cost. This is why we do not seek to contain China's rise. On the contrary, we welcome to the international community, China, as a strong, prosperous and successful member.” You have called for “changes” during your election campaign; so I think your words on “not seek to contain China’s rise” shows your sincerity in making some “changes” in Sino-US relations. The first thing that comes to mind is that the US government under you, unlike your predecessors, will not annoy China on China’s reunification and the Taiwan Question, as the Chinese nationals really appreciate the current peaceful cross-Straits relationship. 
However, two months after you left Shanghai, your promise “not seek to contain China’s rise” and “my administration fully supports a one-China policy” is weirdly mingled with your decision to sell arms to Taiwan. I am not sure if I have interpreted you wrongly. Either you have not changed, or you have changed so fast that I do not even have the time to picture what great peace and happiness your promise would bring to the people across the Taiwan Straits. Of course, I hope I am not wrong in understanding your promise, and you are not changing fast. Because a president who brings hope into the White House, is not expected to “change nothing” or “change too fast”. 
I enjoyed your speech and admired your speaking skills. I really wish you could meet the Chinese youth and the Chinese web users, and explain whether your promise to them or to China has changed. But I’d like to add a note here. We do not need lame explanations like “arms sale to Taiwan is good for security across the Taiwan Straits”, because it is an insult to our intelligence if we believe in such excuses. It is a simple fact that for the separatists, the more advanced their equipments is, the more they would want to split from the nation. In the American Civil War, the southern rebels were even crazier in their fight with the Federal government under Abraham Lincoln after they received military support from Britain.

Mr. President, when you first put your hands on the Bible that Abraham Lincoln once used and vowed to be the 44th president of the United States, many people called you “Lincoln the second”. There are even people in media counting the similarities between you and Lincoln: you are both from an ordinary family, and both have brilliant talent and eloquence. You also said you are a fan of Lincoln in your autobiography, The Audacity of Hope. But no matter how many similarities you and Abraham Lincoln might have, I, as an ordinary Chinese, think you have one deep-rooted difference. The difference is that President Lincoln had suffered from the splitting pains of his nation, and bore hatred for the external power that intervened to split his nation; but you did not. 
Mr. President, you are a knowledgeable man. You must have remembered the Trent Affair during the American Civil War, where President Lincoln bit the bullet and met the unreasonable demands of the British to release the special envoys the southern rebels sent to Britain. However, during that time, Lincoln told his people “that was a pretty bitter pill to swallow, but I contented myself with believing that England's triumph in the matter would be short-lived, and that after ending our war successfully we could if we wished call England to account for the embarrassments she had inflicted upon us.” Mr. President, do you know that you are compelling Chinese people to swallow a bitter pill by selling arms to Taiwan and interfering in the reunification of China? Has it occurred to you that the leaders in China might have spoken the same words your idol, Abraham Lincoln once said, that “we wished (to) call America to account for the embarrassments she had inflicted upon us”? 
Yours sincerely,
LTML
A Chinese web user from bbs.huanqiu.com
Feb. 2, 2010



LTML的公开信原文尊敬的总统先生：

素闻您非常在意网民的声音，也注意到您去年11月首次访问中国时还特意要求与网民“对话”，回答他们的关切和问题。总统先生对普通网民声音的重视让像我这样的网民深受鼓舞，这也是我冒昧给您写这封信的重要原因，因为我是一名普通的中国网民，而且我想谈的事情也正是这些天中国网民非常关切的由您宣布的对台军售问题。所以，我真诚地希望您能看到我的这封信，听到一位普通中国网民对国家民族统一与和平安定的向往。

记得您去年11月在上海与中国青年对话时说过这么一段话：“所以21世纪的实力不在零和游戏，一个国家成功不应该以另外一个国家的牺牲作为代价。这就是我们为什么不寻求遏制中国的崛起。相反，我们欢迎中国作为一个国际社会的强大的、繁荣的、成功的成员。”您在竞选期间多次呼吁“change”，所以您的这番“不寻求遏制中国”的明确表态当时确实让我感受到了您在中美关系上“change”的诚意，至少我当时首先想到的是：您所领导的政府肯定不会如您的某些前任那样，在事关中国国家统一的台湾问题上让中国难受，因为中国老百姓太珍惜目前来之不易的台海和平局面了。

令我感到遗憾的是，离开上海才两个月，您“不寻求遏制中国”、“我的政府全面支持一个中国政策”的承诺里就增添了“对台军售”的奇怪内容。我不知道是我错了--您根本就没有“change”，还是您“change”得太快，快得我这个与您一样有着强烈民族自豪感的人还没来得及憧憬您的承诺可能给海峡两岸中国人带来何种和平与安宁。当然，我不希望是我错了，也不希望是您“change”得太快，因为无论是不“change”还是太擅长“change”，都与当初带着“hope”入主白宫的奥巴马总统形象不太相称。

一直以来都非常仰慕您雄辩的口才，真希望您能在百忙中抽空给您去年面对的中国青年、中国网民再来一次精彩演说，解释一下您对他们、对中国的承诺到底有没有“change”？不过在此要提醒一下，我们不需要美国国务院最近所称的“对台军售有利于台海安全与稳定”这种多少有点侮辱人类智商的解释。道理很简单：国家分裂势力手中的武器越精良，他们分裂国家的冲动就越强烈，就如美国南北战争期间南方叛军得到英国军舰援助后就更加敢于藐视林肯总统所领导的联邦政府一样。

总统先生，在您按着1861年林肯用过的《圣经》宣誓成为美国第44任总统时，不少人都将您视为“林肯第二”，有媒体还历数您与林肯总统有哪些共同点：出身贫寒、才华横溢、能言善辩等等，您也在自传《无畏的希望》一书中毫不掩饰您是林肯的超级粉丝。但无论您和林肯总统有多少相似点，从我这个普通中国人的角度来看，你们有着本质上的不同：林肯总统有过民族分裂的锥心之痛，有过对外部势力干涉国家统一的刻骨之恨！而这些您都没有！

总统先生，您知识渊博，一定还记得美国南北战争期间的“特伦特号”事件。面对当时大英帝国的蛮横霸道，在举国上下誓言与英国干涉军血战之时，林肯总统忍辱负重，满足了英国的无理要求，释放了南方叛军向英国派遣的求援特使。但当时林肯总统也对自己的人民说：“这是一颗难以吞咽的苦药丸，但我感到宽慰的是，英国在这件事上的胜利是暂时的，等到我们胜利地结束这场战争之后，我们将会变得非常强大，现在它让我们难堪，到时候我们将和它算总账。”

总统先生，您是否知道，您现在宣布对台军售干涉中国的国家统一，也是在逼中国人民吞咽“一颗难以吞咽的苦药丸”？您是否想过，中国领导人也完全有理由说出您的偶像--林肯总统当年曾说过的那番话：现在它让我们难堪，到时候我们将和它算总账？！

此致敬礼

一个来自环球网论坛的中国网民：LTML 2010年2月2日