Shi Zongyuan, head of the communist giant's General Administration of Press and Publication, said that the role of foreign media in encouraging recent revolutions in Kyrgyzstan, Georgia and Ukraine had forced it to drop the plans.
He said that the revolutions were "a reminder not to let saboteurs into the house and that the door must be closed, so we have closed it temporarily" according to The Straits Times of Singapore.
China had intended to allow a small number of foreign newspapers to be printed by local print plants for the domestic market. Currently, foreign papers are flown in from Hong Kong and are only distributed in hotels and airports and to approved subscribers.
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