China magazine Caixin defiant on censorship of article

A cached version of the article highlighting censorship, which itself was censored, is still available to read online

Prominent Chinese financial magazine Caixin has highlighted censorship of its content, in a rare defiant move against the government.

It claimed on Monday, in an article published on its English-language website, that censors had deleted an interview on the issue of free speech.

But by Tuesday evening that article appeared to have been deleted as well.

Chinese media is heavily regulated with government censors often removing content on websites and social media.

Caixin's latest article, which is now offline but still available to read as a cached version online, reported that the "government censorship organ" the Cyberspace Administration of China had deleted an interview on its Chinese-language site on 5 March.

The interview was with Jiang Hong, a delegate from the advisory Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, who said members should be allowed to speak freely, but because of "certain events, everyone is a bit dazed and doesn't want to talk too much".

Caixin, in its Monday article, said that editors were told the interview had "illegal content" and "violated laws and regulations". It also quoted Mr Jiang's reaction to the deletion as "terrible and bewildering... I couldn't see anything illegal."

Beijing-based Caixin is widely respected in China, and is known for its financial reporting and investigative journalism.

The move comes after last month's tour of state media outlets by President Xi Jinping. It was widely seen as confirmation of his desire to bring journalists to heel and to stamp out what his government derides as dangerous "Western values" such as freedom of expression, correspondents say.

Editors and reporters were told to pledge loyalty to the Communist Party and its leadership

In 2015, China was the world's top jailer of journalists with a record 49 reporters behind bars, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists., and Freedom House has ranked the country as the world's worst abuser of internet freedom.