Chinese censors issue fresh warning to foreign publishers after Springer Nature pulls articles

Chinese distributors of overseas publications must verify that the content is legal in China, Beijing said late on Sunday, after a major Western publisher blocked access to some content in the country citing local regulations.

Springer Nature, which publishes the science magazines Nature and Scientific American, said last week it had pulled access to less than 1 per cent of its articles in China, which it said was regrettable but necessary to avoid all content being blocked.

“All publications imported into the Chinese market must accord with Chinese laws and regulations. The publications’ import management company is responsible for carrying out content checks on publications,” the State Council Information Office, the government’s information and propaganda arm, said on Wednesday.

Beijing issued a similar statement after Britain’s Cambridge University Press (CUP) in August removed and then reposted about 300 papers and book reviews published by the China Quarterly journal from its Chinese website.

Under President Xi Jinping, China has heightened censorship, tightened controls on the internet, and strengthened Communist Party authority over academia and other institutions.

CUP’s decision was originally taken at the request of the Chinese government, the publisher said at the time. CUP later reversed it after an outcry from academics who said the decision impinged upon academic freedom.