CHINA: Authorities in China have shut down an influential periodical for publishing a controversial piece on North Korea, prompting fear among academics who say it could be a sign of tighter censorship, writes Clifford Coonan in Beijing
Strategy and Management, which covered diplomacy, current affairs and economics, was published each two months and occasionally made critical comments about government policy.
One academic who had lent his name to the journal said the closure could be a sign of censorship getting tighter.
Strategy and Management was widely respected for providing a platform for independent opinion and had raised government hackles more than once during its 11 years of publication.
Many observers attributed its demise to a critical article on North Korea featured in its August issue. A former editor said the publication had been living on borrowed time for several months.
The article, written by an academic from the Tianjin Academy of Social Sciences, argued that Pyongyang was ungrateful for political and economic support from the mainland and also put Beijing in a difficult political position by playing a cat and mouse game with Washington over its nuclear weapons programme.
Although China is North Korea's only ally, relations have become tense over Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions.
The journal lost its official sponsor when the State Development Planning Commission was merged with another department last year in a reshuffle.
But all publications in China depend on state sponsorship in one form or another as independent publications are not allowed.
The journal was ordered to close down in June by the Communist Party's Publicity Department, but editors had hoped they could find a new sponsor.
Recent events were confounded by a drop in circulation.
Meanwhile, a Chinese journalist renowned for his reports on rural poverty and corruption has been arrested, the rights group Labour Watch reported.
Mr Zhao Yan was picked up by state security officers in Shanghai last week, as part of crackdown on dissent to coincide with last week's high-level political meetings.
President Hu Jintao, who was appointed commander-in-chief of the army last weekend, made it clear his term in office will not lead the country to western-style democracy.