The Guangzhou-based New Express newspaper was missing most of its regular sections for the second day in a row yesterday following the removal of its editor-in-chief on Monday.
Analysts and journalists attribute the move to tightened censorship ahead of this year's Communist Party national congress.
Wang Yang , the provincial party boss, is regarded as a leading contender forelevation to the party's leadership.
The editorial page was once again missing, while only two pages were devoted to national and international news (on Monday there were none). The city and community news section was much bigger than usual.
Although veteran Guangdong journalists said the punishment was a result of the newspaper's reprinting on July 10 of a full page of reports from the Jinan Daily, a Shandong government mouthpiece, about the early lives of five Politburo members, the Jinan Daily has not received any punishment. The same report, which was also carried by the People's Daily's website and China News Service, was in Jinan Daily's online archive yesterday.
Professor Hu Xingdou, of the Beijing Institute of Technology, said Guangdong's media were the most influential on the mainland. 'The whole country can hear once they speak,' he said. 'That's probably why only New Express was censored while the original author, the Jinan Daily, survived.'