BEIJING — The protests in Egypt are about free elections and overthrowing a longtime dictator? Not according to China’s state media, which is painting them as the kind of chaos that comes with Western-style democracy.
The uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia are giving pause to many authoritarian regimes, but nowhere else appears to be as determined to control the message as China.
Chinese censors have blocked the ability to search the term “Egypt” on micro blogging sites, and user comments that draw parallels to China have been deleted from Internet forums. The People’s Daily, the flagship newspaper of the Communist Party, carried only a short report Thursday saying Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak would not stand for re-election.
While there is little chance the protests could spark demonstrations in China, the extent to which the long-ruling Communist Party is censoring the story underscores how wary it is of any potential source of unrest.
