For the second time in as many months there was trouble in Pakistan, an allied country that sits on China’s borders. Pervez Musharraf had proclaimed special emergency powers. A few weeks earlier, it had been Myanmar, where pro-democracy demonstrations were put down with force.

But despite the proximity and important interests in play, most Chinese newspaper readers had to content themselves with dry, narrowly drawn and sometimes inaccurate accounts of the events. Absent from the foreign news coverage was independent reporting from the scene or any in-depth analysis.

The contrast with domestic news coverage could not be more striking. Despite continuing censorship and restrictive government rules about ownership and registration of publications, Chinese news coverage at home is in the midst of something of a golden age. A large and growing variety of news sources and a new generation of journalists have steadily expanded the boundaries of the permissible.

But what Chinese readers are able to learn of events in the rest of the world from most mainstream media here remains sharply limited in context and tightly controlled. On September 27, for example, a day after Burmese soldiers opened fire on unarmed demonstrators, both Shanghai’s Oriental Morning Post and the Beijing Youth Daily published an article from the official Xinhua news agency saying that the “Myanmar government has been restrained in handling the monks’ protest and didn’t use force” to disperse the protesters.

Only a handful of China’s conservative, state-run publications have permanent bureaus and correspondents in foreign countries. Asked why, editors pointed to a government rule requiring authorisation to open bureaus or send reporters overseas. One editor said orders were sometimes received not to interview people overseas, and to avoid talking with representatives of the foreign media. An official at the State Council Information Office, a branch of China’s cabinet, refused to confirm or deny the existence of such a rule.

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