The Guangzhou-based New Express saw its editor-in-chief removed and several main sections axed yesterday, with analysts saying the abrupt changes could be evidence of a drastic censorship push ahead of the Communist Party's national congress later this year.
The newspaper confirmed that editor-in-chief Lu Fumin, who spent 14 years in its newsroom, was removed from the post to head the political news section of a sister newspaper, the Yangcheng Evening News.
The newspaper also axed it editorial, national and international pages and only retained pages covering Guangzhou city news, entertainment and sport and one page of news from the wider Pearl River Delta.
Veteran Guangdong journalists said the move, probably ordered by provincial propaganda authorities, was the result of its publication of a full page of reports on July 10 about the early lives of five Politburo members.
The reports, reprinted from Shandong's Jinan Daily, appeared to rank the five, with Vice-President Xi Jinping, widely expected to be the party's next general secretary and the nation's next president, placed in the centre of the page; Li Keqiang, tipped to be the next premier, in the left-hand column; and Vice-Premier Wang Qishan, party organisation department chief Li Yuanchao and Chongqing party boss Zhang Dejiang sharing the right side of the page.
The last three are likely to join Xi and Li in the new Politburo Standing Committee line-up at the 18th party congress.
The page had been deleted from the newspaper's online archive yesterday.