Fearful China blocks 'Egypt' search

Three sites - Sina.com, Netease.com and Weibo, the Chinese equivalent of Twitter - have seen the "Egypt" keyword search blocked by a nation nervous that the North African uprising could serve as a rallying cry for its own pro-democracy activists.

Officials from the ruling Communist Party believe the internet has a central role in fanning such unrest.

Beijing has also tried to pre-empt any public debate by portraying the protests in Egypt in a few editorials and articles in state-controlled news publications as a chaotic affair which shows the pitfalls of trying to plant democracy in countries that are not quite ready for it - a long-held Communist Party line.

The English-language edition of Global Times, a populist newspaper, ran an editorial on Sunday about the Tunisian and Egyptian protests with the headline: "Colour revolutions will not bring about real democracy." Though Global Times is not the official mouthpiece of the Communist Party, the message was consistent with official thinking, saying bluntly that whether democracy "is applicable in other countries is in question, as more and more unsuccessful examples arise".

"The official Chinese media is reporting the Egypt events - it's no longer possible for Xinhua and other official media to remain credible if they hide international news that people can learn from the internet," said Susan Shirk, assistant deputy secretary of state during US president Bill Clinton's administration. "But they reduce the risk that some Chinese might want to emulate them by describing them as 'anti-government riots'."

Egypt at a crossroads

• Mubarak says he will quit amid further protests

• Ruth Sherlock in Cairo: A Million defiant Egyptians tell Mubarak 'Go now'

• Million set for Cairo's streets as power slips from Mubarak

• Scenario 1: Failure for protesters and rulers stay in power

• Scenario 2: Success for protesters and re-run of elections

• Scenario 3: Civil war leads to the rise of Islamic extremism

• Scenario 4: Wave of democracy spreads through Arab world

• UK sends flight for stranded Britons . . . but charges 300

Some of the news coverage of Egypt that has appeared in People's Daily, the Communist Party's main newspaper, and Xinhua, the official news agency, has focused on attempts by China to evacuate its citizens, simply leaving out the political discontent at the root of the unrest. Xiao Qiang, an adjunct professor at the University of California and an expert on internet censorship in China, said propaganda officials had recently ordered Chinese news organisations and websites to strictly follow Xinhua reports on Egypt.

The Chinese authorities' efforts to censor and shape news on the internet have evolved since they grappled with unrest during the Tibet riots in 2008 and protests against the Olympic torch relay. The authorities initiated a crackdown on pornography and other "harmful information," including closing a liberal forum, soon after the release of Charter 08, an online manifesto calling for democratic reforms that gathered thousands of signatures through e-mail.The fact that social networking sites have fuelled protests in Egypt is likely to put them under closer scrutiny by Chinese officials. Yet some intellectuals in Beijing think it unlikely that the Egypt protests could spark similar upheaval in China, which is enjoying unparalleled growth.

"I don't think dissemination of such news would cause unrest in China," said Jia Qingguo, associate dean of international relations at Peking University. "Egypt is a different type of political regime from China.

"They are also not a socialist country. They have their own particular problems."