China means millions of customers for any Western company trying to enter the Asian market, so for Apple.  Last December, the company decided to withdraw the New York Times app - both the English and the Chinese version- from its China App Store, following a request from Chinese authorities and lowering the risk of losing one of its biggest markets.

According to The New York Times, the move was aimed at preventing readers in China "from accessing independent news coverage".

Apple said they had been informed the app violated Chinese regulations but did not say what rules had been broken, reports the BBC.

Western media have long been facing difficulties making their content available in China with many outlets frequently or permanently blocked.

"When this situation changes, the app store will once again offer the New York Times app for download in China," the spokesman of Apple said to the NY Times.

The paper's website has been blocked in China since 2012 after it published a number of reports on the private wealth of members of the political elite and their families.A number of other Western websites like Google, YouTube and Facebook are also blocked in China.

As reported in the BBC.