Fearful of revolution, China blocks news of Egypt protests
The Government has stopped the use of the country's name across a popular Twitter-like blogging site and restricting the reporting of events there.
Authorities have blocked the Chinese characters for Egypt on Sina.com's Weibo site, used by more than 50 million of China's 400 million netizens.
The Egyptian news has been played down in the Chinese media, being relegated to the second page of the country's major website and portals. Newspapers all carry the state-run Xinhua version of the story.
The Chinese authorities are sensitive to offshore revolutions against authoritarian governments, fearing such movements might spread to China.
Local street protests have been swelling over corruption, the income gap between rich and poor, and heavy-handed security operations such as evictions to make way for development projects.
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