Shanghai - China has brought the curtain down on a Shanghai opera troupe that had hoped to perform at New York's Lincoln Centre.
The Peony Pavilion, which has become a controversial side-show to the Clinton China visit, has failed to gain approval from Shanghai censors to make it in time for its planned July 7th debut.
By withholding permission for the company to leave for New York, the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Culture "has effectively cancelled the performance", said Mr Nigel Redden, Lincoln Centre Festival director.
