The Guardian reports:

Barack Obama may ditch his sole meeting with the Chinese public on his maiden trip to China because Washington and Beijing have yet to agree on the terms of the event, days ahead of his arrival.

It is understood that the US initially wanted an unscripted, "town hall" style meeting in Shanghai of around 1,000 young people, mostly Chinese students, to be broadcast live on television or streamed direct on major web portals.

In a White House briefing on the Asia trip on Monday, Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser, told journalists: "We will be having an event where the president will have the opportunity to engage in a dialogue with Chinese youth, where he'll have the opportunity both to speak to them and also to take some questions and hear directly from young Chinese."

...Ditching the event would be embarrassing to both sides. It is common for visiting leaders and other politicians to deliver speeches at Chinese universities and take questions afterwards, and hold other meetings with young people.

The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, also took part in a webchat with Chinese internet users — via the site of a state-owned newspaper — when she visited earlier this year.

In reality, participants in such meetings are carefully vetted by the Chinese authorities, and fully briefed on the questions they should ask. But Chinese officials may be anxious at the size of the audience the US sought and the unscripted nature of the event combined with the live aspect.