THE COMMUNIST PARTY’S leadership, with “Comrade Xi Jinping at the core”, attaches “great importance” to managing internet content. So declared the government on October 20th when unveiling new instructions about what news could be republished online. This was an understatement. Under the party’s rule, China’s press has never enjoyed more than a small modicum of freedom. Mr Xi has relentlessly tightened controls. Reporters and editors deemed politically wayward have been disciplined, fired or jailed.Listen to this storyYour browser does not support the element.Enjoy more audio and podcasts on iOS or Android.The new directive, issued by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), updates a list, first published in 2016, of news sources that other websites may republish. CAC said the revision was aimed at “resolutely closing the ‘back door’ on illegal newsgathering and redistribution”.The list names 1,358 approved outlets. That is nearly four times as many as were named in the previous one. It is not a sign of relaxation. The larger number merely reflects the proliferation of news websites run by state-owned media. More important to note are sources that are no longer listed. The most conspicuous is Caixin Online, a popular and trusted website.Since its launch in 2009, Caixin Online has been an outlier in China’s drab media landscape. It often goes far beyond other outlets with investigative reporting and coverage of topics such as corruption, environmental problems and touchy policy debates. In the early stages of the pandemic it called into question the official death toll in Wuhan, pointing to an unusual workload at crematoria. Its founder, Hu Shuli, previously ran a magazine called Caij …
