The ban prompted an open letter by a writer in Beijing questioning whether China's propaganda officials were opposed to economic reform and whether they backed the leadership of state president and Communist Party chief Jiang Zemin.
The Press and Publications Administration, under the party's powerful propaganda department, suspended publication of the Economic Work Monthly, based in southwestern Guizhou province, in August, said sources familiar with the magazine.
The suspension followed the magazine's publication of an article critical of a privately circulated tract known as the 10,000-word essay which urges a return to class struggle and warns of the erosion of the state sector by private enterprise. This was the first disclosure of the essay penned by supporters of a more orthodox Marxist line.
According to latest reports, Cui Enging, president and chief editor of the popular Beijing Youth Daily known for its progressive reporting within the limits of state control has been removed.
Cui was replaced by Chen Xing, the deputy chief editor of Beijing Ribao daily.
Western diplomats and Chinese analysts have described a literary and cultural freeze in recent months amid a crackdown by propaganda tsars on publications and authors that dare to break away from a stultifying diet of state-approved fare.
The clampdown has been fuelled by a call for spiritual civilisation
