Why can a class not be defined as protected?

Question

Why can we not define a class as protected?

I know that we can\'t, but why? There should be some specific reason.

Answer 1

protected means that the member can be accessed by any class in the same package and by sub classes even if they are in another packages.

Example:

package a;
class parent{
 protected void p();
}
package b;
import a.p;
class child extends parent{
  //you can access method which is protected in the parent in the child 
}
class another extends child {
 //here you can not access the protected method 
}