Boston Bombing Prompts Transparency Debate in China

Media coverage of incident extremely different than censored information from tragedies and incidents in China

The murder of a Chinese exchange student in last week's Boston terror attack has drawn an unexpected sort of attention in China, where the American handling of the incident is being contrasted favorably with the Chinese handling of similar tragedies.

"Three hours after Boston bombings: all cameras rolling, no bans on content . . . It spares us the suspicious speculation," a Chinese user praised Boston's media wrote in one widely reblogged message on Weibo. "All worth learning from."

And particular contrast came as Saturday's Sichuan earthquake reminded many of how grieving parents were jailed for demanding investigations on collapsed schools in 2008's quake (a subject of many Ai Weiwei interviews and Youtube documentaries). Since even before the violent quashing of Tiananmen, the murky handling of student deaths have always touched a raw nerve in Chinese national sentiment.