His critics accuse Gordon Brown of being a control freak, but the chancellor has nothing on the autocrats in Beijing.
Xinhua, China's state-run news agency and the industry regulator, has told international news services including Reuters, Dow Jones and Bloomberg that their news is subject to censorship.
The new measures, unveiled at the weekend, are written in Orwellian language and so broad in scope that they allow the Chinese government - the ultimate boss of Xinhua - ample scope to stomp down on news not to its liking.
The areas of contention, listed in article 11, are worth reading in full. Information containing material that may "undermine national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity" is forbidden. This provision is clearly designed to stifle discussion of Taiwan. Similarly, articles that "violate" China's religious policies or "preach evil cults or superstition", a clear reference to Falun Gong, will be censored.
In another measure to control the flow of information, the new rules ban the agencies from selling directly to local customers, including banks and other financial services companies.
What is puzzling about the latest move is that the international news services affected can hardly be described as troublemakers. The Wall Street Journal, owned by Dow Jones, wonders whether Beijing's political elite feels threatened, as freedom of information is unsettling to any authoritarian state.
If that is the case, it may explain the jitters of insecurity lately as China tries to control information. It has already forced Google, Microsoft and Yahoo into accepting restrictions on their online content, while the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia has been banned from China since October for refusing to bow refusing to bow to censorship of politically sensitive entries.
The US, the EU and human rights organisations have all strongly criticised the latest restrictions. The US said China's media policies in general were incompatible with its aspirations to build a modern, information-based economic system, and constituted a breach of fundamental rights.
The group Human Rights in China says the latest moves do not exactly chime with Beijing's commitment to allow free press coverage of the 2008 Olympics.
The Chinese government can be rightly proud of its amazing economic record that has lifted millions out of poverty, an achievement that has development economists singing China's praises. The leadership will no doubt argue that order and stability were the essential backdrops for such momentous economic change. But China only has to look next door, where a large, messy democracy has notched up a similarly impressive economic record. That country is India.
