Beijing - July 18, 2000. Viewed as part of the campaign against rightist, Beijing's recent crackdown on publishing industry involved disciplining more than a dozen publication houses and periodical publishers who allegedly violated Beijing's new set of rules for publishing, Reuters reported on Monday.

Three publishing houses: the Today China Press, the Reform Press and the East Wind Arts Press have been closed or suspended. Others, including the China Film Press, the China Opera Press and the Nanfang Daily Publishing House, have been given warnings, the report said.

The celebrated liberal writer, YU Jie, who recently graduated from Beijing University with a Masters degree in Chinese literature, has been asked to leave his job at the Modern Literature Gallery, a unit under the official Chinese Writers Association. Editors of these publishing houses have been either disciplined, replaced or demoted.

According to the report, Beijing put forward an internal document listing seven criteria for penal actions. Those that are strictly forbidden include: articles and books violating the Four Cardinal Principles of Marxism, materials contradicting main party and state policies, pornography, materials containing military or other state secrets, and materials threatening social stability or going against Beijing's policies toward ethnic minorities.

Violations could result in any of the three disciplinary actions: a "yellow card" warning against the publishing unit itself, restructuring of the editorial committee, closure or suspension of the publishing unit.