BEIJING: China's state-controlled press on Thursday ignored or played down the violent crackdown on anti-government demonstrations in neighbouring Myanmar.

Major mass-circulation Chinese-language papers such as the People's Daily, the ruling Communist Party's mouthpiece, had no stories on the unrest, with the nationally broadcast midday television news also choosing not to report on it.

The unrest is a sensitive issue for the Chinese government, which is one of the Myanmar junta's closest allies and is constantly on guard against an uprising against its own rule.

In 1989, China's rulers sent in the military to crush weeks of pro-democracy rallies in Beijing, which saw hundreds, if not thousands, of people killed.

Buddhist monks have spearheaded the rallies in Myanmar, and there are many people in Tibet, a devoutly Buddhist region ruled by China for over 50 years, who also dream of autonomy or independence.

On Wednesday, Myanmar police and security forces began beating and shooting at protesters taking part in massive anti-government rallies in the Southeast Asian nation's biggest city of Yangon and elsewhere.

The popular Beijing Youth Daily was one of the few papers to run a Myanmar story on Thursday, focusing on a curfew imposed due to the "large-scale demonstrations" but contradicting global reports of a harsh crackdown.

"Myanmar officials have consistently exercised restraint in handling these demonstrations and have not employed force to disperse the demonstrators," it said.

The English-language China Daily newspaper, which caters mainly for a foreign audience, carried a small story on page seven which acknowledged that three demonstrators had been killed.

The Global Times, a daily that focuses on international news, was the only paper to carry a front-page report on the unrest.

A number of Western countries have urged China to use its influence on Myanmar to prevent more blood being spilt by the ruling junta, but Beijing has refrained from taking a tough public stand against the regime.


- AFP/so