Newspaper kiosks demolished in Beijing

Newspapers, magazines and soft drinks went off the main roads in the Chinese capital as officials removed numerous kiosks owned by small vendors to spruce up the city for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit.
At least 70 news stands in Beijing were demolished by officials.
The news stands were "forcibly demolished" in the night between July 31 and August 1, state-run China Economic Weekly reported.
The kiosks mainly sold state-run newspapers as well as a variety of magazines.
With the disappearance of kiosks, newspapers can be subscribed only through official China Post.
Authorities in Chaoyang district, on the east side of the capital, however, denied the news stands were demolished. They said that they removed the news stands and "standardised" another one in accordance with "relevant provisions".

Media reports said the news stands were torn down because they "sold things other than newspapers" and they "were the city's eyesores", Hong Kong based South China Morning Post reported.

The vendors said that they have been told that the kiosks were demolished in view of China hosting the APEC summit in November.
Selling bottled water and other soft drinks is a common practice for news stands in the city.
Authorities reportedly ordered 70 per cent of its government cars off the roads during the current meeting.
The Beijing Newspaper Retail Company, which oversees the news stands said that they received a notice in April from municipal authorities asking them to revamp the news stands, but they were not informed of any demolition.

The authorities said they would provide assistance to news stand owners once local governments provided confirmation that the owners are having financial difficulties.