...thought so

Unless you're a subscriber, you can't link to the South China Morning Post article which appeared this morning on the NewspaperDirect/Easiprint story as it remains behind their firewall. However, as predicted, it appears that GAPP did not really know about the deal and doesn't approve of it. The article quotes GAPP's deputy director Yu Yongzhan saying that "that the administration had studied the possibility of allowing foreign newspapers to print on the mainland, but had decided against it at present".

Commenting specifically on the Easiprint story, he apparently said ""This report is false. "The Founder Group is a very influential company, and would not do anything to violate the law." Easiprint is a subsidiary of the $3 billion Founder Group.

Apparently NewspaperDirect is not aware of all this and says it is already printing in Beijing and Shanghai. Not for long, we reckon.