Silencing Chinese Media

Chinese media in the reform era walk a fine line between commercialized diversification and party-state control. Nowhere have these two trends been in more open conflict than at Southern Weekly (Nanfang Zhoumo), a Guangzhou-based newspaper known for reliably pushing the envelope on media controls. Soon after a new group of political leaders rose to power in early 2013, these tensions boiled over, with censors making draconian cuts to the paper’s New Year’s edition. Fiery debates raged inside the