On Wednesday, Changjiang Publishing and Media Co. Ltd ordered Chongwen Publishing House, the subsidiary responsible for Xinhua Dictionaries, to recall and destroy dictionaries, which are handed out to school children.

"The Chongwen Publishing House breached the contract with Hubei Provincial Department of Education, and changed the version of the Xinhua Dictionary that should be handed out without permission," the company said in a statement on its website.

On Sunday, China Central Television reported that 3.2 million dictionaries handed out to rural primary and junior middle school students for free in Central China's Hubei province were found to be a different version from the authentic Xinhua Dictionary and of very poor quality, which aroused widespread concern.

"The Chongwen Publishing House takes responsibility, and Huang Chengyong, general manager of the publishing house has been suspended from his duties while the matter is investigated," the statement said.

A staff member from the general office of Chongwen, who refused to give her name, said they had made two announcements on their website since the incident was reported.

"We reacted quickly by releasing a statement right after the incident was reported on May 5, and we did that again when new progress was made in the investigation on May 8," the woman said.

She also said that the company would not be talking to the media until it had completed its investigation.

"Please pay close attention to our website as we will post updated information on it."