State-manufactured reality slips in China, to reveal ugly truths :

Xia's journalism lecture included other examples of Xinhua's work, notably coverage of ethnic rioting in the far west of China last summer that left nearly 200 people dead.

Xia explained how Xinhua concealed the true horror of the unrest for fear that it would set off violence beyond Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region. Rioters burned bus passengers alive, he told the class, raped women and decapitated children.

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