WHEN THE CHINESE government closed down Freezing Point, the highly regarded weekly supplement of the China Youth Daily newspaper, the world was shocked. What few outside observers understood, however, is that this move was not purely a throwback to a past era of censorship. Rather it was part of a relatively recent effort to reinforce the culture of self-censorship within an increasingly vibrant media sector. Spearheading this effort is a shadowy group of Communist Party officials entrusted with tremendous power and almost no accountability.
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