
Taming News of a Border Tragedy
The catastrophe that struck the China-Nepal border last month is a case study in information control — and the clearest sign yet that Xi Jinping has rewritten the script for domestic media.

On February 6, 2024, Chinese Ambassador to Portugal Zhao Bentang (趙本堂) met with representatives from Diário de Notícias, a Portuguese newspaper founded in 1864. The meeting, reported only by the Chinese Embassy, featured Zhao promoting China’s foreign policy framework and proposing expanded media cooperation. The newspaper’s representatives pledged to present “a real, multi-dimensional, and comprehensive China” to Portuguese readers — language that closely echoes Chinese state media narratives about countering alleged Western media bias.
