Earlier, Hong Kong and Taiwan reports said the three US elite magazines had acquired permission from the authorities to publish on the mainland.

But the State Press and Publication Administration (SPPA) told China Daily that none of these magazines has obtained proper approval.

None of them has submitted an application for entry approval. Their appearance in the mainland market is therefore unlawful. "We have approved none of these three American periodicals to publish in China by themselves or by copyright co-operation with any domestic publishing company," said Wang Huapeng, director of the SPPA foreign exchange and co-operation department.

SPPA officials warned that all foreign publications must first acquire approval from the SPPA before starting their distribution on the mainland.

Periodicals or other media products launched on the mainland without SPPA permission would face punishment in line with relative laws or regulations, officials said.

According to the existing publishing regulations, such violations could be subject to financial penalties, confiscation of publications and related facilities, or even criminal charges of illegal business operations.

Newsweek is reportedly planning to launch in April its first mainland-oriented Chinese-language magazine, in some 80,000 copies, under the title of Newsweek Select. While Harvard Business Review has published five issues in simplified Chinese since last October.

The publishing has violated regulations as neither of the two officially designated entry channels were undertaken. Instead, a serial number of the Social Science Documents Publishing House was used, said Wang.

He also denied reports that a Hong Kong-sponsored newspaper has got permission to publish on the mainland in March.

The China Taiwan Businessmen News, targeted mainly at Taiwan business people on the mainland, has reportedly planned to print 300,000 copies in its initial issue.

It was reported that the newspaper had acquired support from the mainland Taiwan Affairs Office, and Hong Kong and Macao Office under the State Council, and the SPPA.

Wang said it was unlawful if the newspaper in question had set up an editorial office in Beijing, as stated in earlier reports. "Foreign media can only set up liaison offices on the mainland," he said.

China has already opened up its market for foreign investors in the distribution and retail of newspapers and periodicals in the first year after the country's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), and pledged that it would allow them to operate related wholesale business in three years.

But foreign investors are still banned from getting involved in the editing and publishing of books, newspapers, periodicals and video-audio products, unless they operate under copyright trade contracts.

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