China's unofficial magazines: only a handful still publish

Authorities here have effectively suppressed most of China's unofficial magazines following the collapse of the democracy movement at the end of last year, and those still publishing are not expected to last much longer.

Informed Chinese sources said only a handful of the 70 to 80 unofficial publications that grew out of the year-long wall-poster campaigns on the now-defunct Peking "democracy wall" and elsewhere were still being printed.

The sources said various degrees of official pressure were being exerted -- often direct police action -- and the suppression was particularly of Sichuan, and in the Yangtze River city of Wuhan.