China Cracks Down on Critical Publication

China's propaganda authorities suspended a hard-hitting publication that dared to print an alternative view of the opium wars and the Boxer rebellion yesterday in a widening campaign against liberal media organisations.

Freezing Point, one of China's most respected news sources, was reportedly accused of "viciously attacking the socialist system" just months after its editor spoke out against Communist party plans to introduce a new bonus system for journalists rewarding reporters according to how often they were praised by cadres and government officials.

Its suspension is likely to have been endorsed at the highest level of a government that is taking increasingly draconian measures to curtail a rising tide of criticism about social injustice and official cover-ups. The publication is part of the China Youth Daily, official newspaper of the Communist youth league - the power base for President Hu Jintao.

Freezing Point has consistently pushed at the restrictions imposed by the propaganda department with stories about official corruption, social inequality and the overcharging of medical fees. Its editor, Li Datong, a veteran of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests, issued an open letter last summer that forced his masters to abandon the journalist reward scheme.

The final straw was an essay published on January 11 that questioned the unbalanced history taught in Chinese schools. Modernisation and history textbooks, written by Yuan Weishi of Zhongshan University, said students should be made aware that the Boxers - who attempted to expel foreigners from China in 1900 - could as easily be described as violent xenophobes as magnificent patriots.