China Blocks 'Egypt' on Top Twitter-Like Service

BEIJING - China has blocked the word "Egypt" from the country's wildly popular Twitter-like service, while coverage of the political turmoil has been tightly restricted in state media.

China's ruling Communist Party is sensitive to any potential source of social unrest.

Real-Time Updates on Twitter: #Egypt

A search for "Egypt" on the Sina microblogging service brings up a message saying, "According to relevant laws, regulations and policies, the search results are not shown." The service has more than 50 million users.

Complete Coverage: Anger in the Arab World

News on the Egypt protests has been limited to a few paragraphs and photos buried inside major news websites, but China Central Television had a report on its midday broadcast.

China's Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment Saturday on the events in Egypt.