Beijing: China removed four pages of the inaugural Asian edition of the 'Financial Times' on September 22, apparently unhappy with an article which showed the multi-party Indian political system in better light than that of China's one-party rule.

"It is true that four pages of the 'Financial Times' with China content was removed from the Monday edition which appeared on the news stand in Beijing," the Beijing bureau chief of 'Financial Times', James Kynge, said.

"I don't know why they removed it and don't know whether it happened in other Chinese cities," Kynge said.

Kynge said that the particular issue had the first part of a three-part series on India-China relations. The article, which might have offended China, had compared the political systems of India and China, which was co-authored by Kynge.

Asked whether he had approached Chinese authorities to find out the reason for the missing pages of the inaugural edition of the paper, Kynge said he did not.

At the same time, Kynge said that the subsequent editions of the 'Financial Times' on September 23 and 24 were "normal" though it carried articles on Sino-Indian relations.

Some Western correspondents, reacting to the FT episode, said they were not surprised as Beijing imposed strict censorship on the content of foreign publications that were allowed to be sold in the country.

China's official Xinhua news agency had reported on the launch of the Asian edition of 'Financial Times'. The new edition, which will be printed in Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo and Seoul, will incorporate increased coverage of Asian business, financial and political news.

PTI