Springer Nature, which owns Nature magazine and Palgrave Macmillan books, and produces periodicals such as Scientific American, has reportedly pulled access to a small number of articles in China to comply with regulations. The publisher has viewed the move as regrettable but necessary. In a statement, Germany-based Springer Nature has said that less than one percent of its content had been 'limited' in mainland China.
According to The Financial Times, at least 1,000 Springer Nature articles has been blocked in China, containing sensitive key words like Tibet, Taiwan and Cultural Revolution.
Chinese officials are increasingly targeting western companies in order to enforce and expand President Xi Jinping's relentless crackdown on dissent and criticism. In September, Beijing ordered Chinese importers of foreign publications to verify that the products were legal.
This decision by Springer has prompted anger from academics. The move comes two months after Britain's Cambridge University Press (CUP) removed about 300 papers and book reviews published in the China Quarterly journal, after a request from the Chinese government. CUP later reversed its decision and reposted the articles following an intense backlash against its surrender of academic freedom.
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