The New York Times is reporting that China has frozen access to the newspaper’s website. The move comes days after Beijing maintained its right to ban online content it deems illegal. The newspaper says computer users who logged on in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou received an alert stating the site was unavailable when they tried to connect.

It still is unclear whether the move is intended to block specific content on the Times website or if it is a return to tighter censorship of the Internet in general. Beijing loosened some media and Internet restrictions during the 2008 Summer Olympics - gestures that were meant to demonstrate to the international community that the games had brought greater freedom to the Chinese people.

A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry declined comment, saying the department does not deal with websites. Additionally, The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which regulates the Internet, could not be reached for comment.  Earlier this week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao defended China’s right for website censorship that have material viewed as illegal by the government, saying that other countries control Internet usage as well.

During the Olympic games, China permitted access to long-barred websites such as the British Broadcasting Corparation and Human Rights Watch after a backlash from foreign journalists who voiced their concerns that Beijing was not living up to its promises of greater media freedom.

China as a country has the most Internet users in the world with more than 250 million, but it has also erected an advanced system to patrol websites for sensitive content and routinely bars sites that support Tibetan independence or the the Dalai Lama.