The authorities in Beijing have seized Chinese-language copies of the Starr report, branding it pornography because of its explicit details about sex in the White House, the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, announced yesterday.
The Office Against Pornography and Illicit Publications of the Municipal Press and Publications Administration confiscated a number of copies on Monday, Xinhua said.
The Chinese translation of the 445-page document detailing Mr Clinton's affair with Ms Monica Lewinsky was printed by a Chinese weekly newspaper in a "special edition" two days after it was published on US government Internet sites, and a circular was immediately issued banning it for "diplomatic reasons".
However, a dozen publishers defied the ban and put out separate translations.
Media coverage of the scandal has been restrained, although tabloids have reported that Ms Lewinsky was sent to the US as an infant by the former Soviet KGB to try to entrap a US president.