This was hardly a tabloid headline, but the article was explosive anyway, with an illustration of a mouth gagged by layers of masking tape to drive home the message. China’s most powerful journalist was taking on Beijing over censorship. Within hours the article attacking government controls – “Story about adviser’s free speech comments removed from Caixin website” – had been censored itself, but not before screenshots and reports of the financial magazine’s extraordinary challenge had rippled around the internet. Editor Hu Shuli has spent decades nurturing her connections