In the following Q&A session, the president held a town-hall style dialogue with 500-strong Chinese youth from Shanghai universities and took questions from both attendees and netizens.

When asked about his understanding of how to promote cultural diversity across the world, the President admitted that different countries should learn from each other.

"It was very important for the United States not to assume what is good for us is automatically good for somebody else," he said.

He cited his family as an example of diverse cultures, saying the family is like "the United Nations" as his father was from Kenya, his mother from Kansas of the US Midwest, while his sister was a half-Indonesian married to "a Chinese person from Canada."

After a Taiwan netizen challenged him about America's stance on the Taiwan issue, Obama said that his administration would continue to fully support the one-China policy, and would be very pleased to see the improving cross-Straits relationship.

"I have been clear in the past the United States supports a one-China policy. We do not want to change that policy or approach...I am very pleased with the reduction of tensions and improvement of the cross-strait relations," he said.

He noted it was his "deep desire and hope" that he would continue to see great improvement between the Chinese mainland and Taiwan in resolving issues.

Economic and commercial ties were helping to lower a lot of tensions, he said.

Obama said as some people looked over the past, he preferred to look towards the future.