Chinese distributors of overseas publications must verify that the content is legal in China, Beijing said late Sunday, after a major western publisher blocked access to some content in the country citing local regulations.
Springer Nature, which publishes science magazines Nature and Scientific American, said last week that it had pulled access to less than 1 percent 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 Chinese government's information and propaganda arm, said in a faxed response to a request for comment sent last Wednesday.