 According to "The New York Times", Alibaba is steering the newspaper into promoting China's soft power, and several critical stories about China's government have been rewritten in an act of self-censorship by the top editors.A few academics pointed out in 2011, 2013 and 2016 that there was a negative or discriminatory discourse present in "SCMP"'s coverage of mainland Chinese people.Questions were raised about the relationship between the publication and Chinese authorities after the "SCMP" was able to secure an interview with Zhao Wei, the legal assistant of human rights defender Li Heping, who was in the custody of Chinese police.