The deleted word 'an' from the title (currently "VPN crackdown 'unthinkable' trial by firewall for China's research world"; in the article, "VPN crackdown an 'u

The deleted word 'an' from the title (currently "VPN crackdown 'unthinkable' trial by firewall for China's research world"; in the article, "VPN crackdown an 'unthinkable' trial by firewall for China's research world") made it a real garden-path sentence for me—I initially read it as "VPN crackdown 'unthinkable'", and struggled to parse the rest separately. Is it really necessary to chop off the indefinite article?