President Obama's town hall in Shanghai (held around midnight East Coast time) was a highlight of his 8-day Asia trip. He'll be holding a press conference today in Beijing and also will see the Great Wall and Forbidden City.

He makes the diplomatic visit as he's considering whether to send a surge of up to 40,000 troops to Afghanistan, and the 300 Chinese students he spoke to at the town hall were well aware of the upcoming decision. A Fudan University student asked Obama if terrorism is still the greatest security concern for the United States, adding, "How do you assess the military actions in Afghanistan, or whether it will turn into another Iraqi war?"

His answer in full after the jump.

Obama said he thinks terrorist networks like al Qaeda remain the "greatest threat to United States' security" and said "they have no conscience when it comes to the destruction of innocent civilians."

He continued:

"Now, the reason we originally went into Afghanistan was because al Qaeda was in Afghanistan, being hosted by the Taliban. They have now moved over the border of Afghanistan and they are in Pakistan now, but they continue to have networks with other extremist organizations in that region. And I do believe that it is important for us to stabilize Afghanistan so that the people of Afghanistan can protect themselves, but they can also be a partner in reducing the power of these extremist networks.

Now, obviously it is a very difficult thing -- one of the hardest things about my job is ordering young men and women into the battlefield. I often have to meet with the mothers and fathers of the fallen, those who do not come home. And it is a great weight on me. It gives me a heavy heart.

Obama said he thinks it's possible "working in a broader coalition with our allies in NATO and others that are contributing like Australia, to help train the Afghans so that they have a functioning government, that they have their own security forces, and then slowly we can begin to pull our troops out because there's no longer that vacuum that existed after the Taliban left."

He added:

But it's a difficult task. It's not easy. And ultimately I think in trying to defeat these terrorist extremists, it's important to understand it's not just a military exercise. We also have to think about what motivates young people to become terrorists, why would they become suicide bombers. And although there are obviously a lot of different reasons, including I think the perversion of religion, in thinking that somehow these kinds of violent acts are appropriate, part of what's happened in places like Pakistan and Afghanistan is these young people have no education, they have no opportunities, and so they see no way for them to move forward in life, and that leads them into thinking that this is their only option.

And so part of what we want to do in Afghanistan is to find ways that we can train teachers and create schools and improve agriculture so that people have a greater sense of hope. That won't change the ideas of a Osama bin Laden who are very ideologically fixed on trying to strike at the West, but it will change the pool of young people who they can recruit from. And that is at least as important, if not more important over time, as whatever military actions that we can take.

Asked about winning the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this year, Obama said:

I don't believe necessarily that it's an honor I deserve, given the extraordinary history of people who have won the prize. All I can do is to, with great humility, accept the fact that I think the committee was inspired by the American people and the possibilities of changing not only America but also America's approach to the world. And so in some ways I think they gave me the prize but I was more just a symbol of the shift in our approach to world affairs that we are trying to promote.

The most interesting part of the town hall was when he talked about Twitter and used it as an example of a free society.

We clipped the whole town hall.