Freezing Point is a news journal in the People's Republic of China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

 which has been the subject of controversy over its criticism of Communist Party officials and the sympathetic ear it lent to a Chinese historian who had criticized official history textbooks. A weekly supplement to China Youth Daily

China Youth Daily

The China Youth Daily is the official newspaper of Communist Youth League of China , and is a popular official daily newspaper and the first independently operated central government news media portal in the People's Republic of China.In 1980s it was regarded as the best newspaper in mainland...

, it was temporarily closed down by officials 24 January 2006, but was allowed to reopen in March that year, though without its former editor Li Datong

Li Datong

Li Datong was the Managing Editor of Freezing Point, a section of China Youth Daily. He was fired, and his popular column closed, because of a published letter condemning censorship and government intrusion into the press in China...

 and without Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...

-based columnist Lung Yingtai.

The official reason for the January 2006 shutdown of Freezing Point was an article by history professor Yuan Weishi of Sun Yat-sen University

Sun Yat-sen University

Sun Yat-sen University, also unofficially referred to as Zhongshan University , is a prominent university located mainly in Guangzhou, China. The University is named after Dr...

 (Zhongshan University). The article dissented from the official view of the Boxer Rebellion

Boxer Rebellion

The Boxer Rebellion, also called the Boxer Uprising by some historians or the Righteous Harmony Society Movement in northern China, was a proto-nationalist movement by the "Righteous Harmony Society" , or "Righteous Fists of Harmony" or "Society of Righteous and Harmonious Fists" , in China between...

.

See also

• Media of the People's Republic of China
  Media of the People's Republic of China
  Media of the People's Republic of China primarily consists of television, newspapers, radio, and magazines. Since 2000, the Internet has also emerged as an important communications medium....
  
  
• Censorship in the People's Republic of China
  Censorship in the People's Republic of China
  Censorship in the People's Republic of China is implemented or mandated by the PRC's ruling party, the Communist Party of China . The special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau have their own legal systems and are largely self-governing, so these censorship policies do not apply...
  
  

External links

• Freezing Point on China Digital Times
• "Chinese Journal Closed by Censors Is to Reopen", The New York Times, February 16, 2006.
• "History Textbooks in China," by Yuan Weishi, and translations of articles on the closing of Bingdian, Feb. 2006 http://www.zonaeuropa.com/20060126_1.htm

• Yuan Weishi, a reform-minded scholar... criticized Chinese textbooks for teaching an incomplete history of China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing, that fosters blind nationalism and closed-minded anti-foreign sentiment. The New York Times 25 Jan 2008.