It is the world's largest political party and has held absolute power for 60 years through state control and media censorship. So when the Chinese Communist party decided to overhaul its propaganda machine, there was only one place to look: the spin tactics of New Labour.

Research by Anne-Marie Brady, a political scientist at the University of Canterbury, New Zealand, shows that officials were briefed in depth on the Blair government's handling of crises as they modernised their news management.

Brady, a specialist on Chinese propaganda, said that following the 2002 Sars outbreak - which was originally covered up by officials - the party set about training "a legion of government spin doctors to handle any future political crisis".

Party officials studied Britain's 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak and the previous year's Phillips report on BSE, Brady wrote in the China Economic Quarterly.

"Government advisers say the model for the new approach was the Blair government's handling of British public opinion [on those issues] in 2000-01."

The Communist party has adopted western techniques to shape public opinion in increasingly sophisticated ways, Brady said. "The rule from 1989 was that only positive propaganda was allowed. Sars was the ultimate evidence that you can't do that all the time," she said.

"With foot-and-mouth, the images of burning cows on bonfires were horrific, but they were cathartic at the same time. And so the argument by people advising the government was: don't be afraid to have negative stories some times."

Officials were forced to adapt by China's gradual reform process - and more recently, by the internet and mobile phones.

When the city of Tangshan was hit by an earthquake in 1976, 240,000 people died, but that toll was classified for three years - and foreign journalists were excluded for seven. Yet after last year's Sichuan earthquake, coverage began in hours.

Last year an academic source close to the propaganda authorities told Reuters the government was encouraging state media to take the initiative in reporting unrest, so they could shape public reaction - "trying to control the news by publicising the news". But heavy censorship remains, with tight controls on the media and the removal or blocking of internet content.

Alastair Campbell, who masterminded New Labour's news management as director of communications, said the party had faced two full-blown domestic crises: foot-and-mouth and the fuel protests.

Asked what the Chinese may have learned from them, he said: "If you were starting from scratch, you would use basically the same principles we applied, but you would be looking to change it even more because the internet has changed things hugely."