Beijing internet censors close websites of liberal economic think tank
Unirule Institute of Economics was founded by Mao Yushi, a veteran economist and critic of his namesake Mao Zedong
Two websites run by a liberal Chinese think tank have been shut down as censorship tightens ahead of the Communist Party’s national congress this year.
The Beijing municipal cyberspace administration said on Friday that the websites of the Unirule Institute of Economics and 15 other online outlets had been shut down “based on regular supervision and investigation upon public tip-offs”.
The shutdowns came after internet watchdogs vowed this month to make “absolute loyalty to the party” the top priority this year to “create a good internet consensus environment” for the 19th party congress this autumn.
The Unirule sites’ closure also came two days after Mao Yushi, an outspoken economist and a founder of the non-governmental think tank, lashed out the country’s top judge for rejecting the concept of judicial independence. Mao’s January 18 post on his microblog account criticised Supreme People’s Court chief justice Zhou Qiang for telling top provincial judges to firmly resist the “erroneous” Western ideas of judicial independence and the separation of powers.
The account has since been blocked.