Richard MacGregor writes for the Financial Times about having his book, The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers
Why should China’s communist rulers care about a modest book written in a language that most of their people cannot read that is not even for sale in the country? Apparently, they care very much. Soon after my book, ‘The Party: The Secret World of China’s Communist Rulers‘ was released in June, the Amazon page displaying the book was blocked by the Great Firewall in China.
…The last week has bought more examples of the authorities’ efforts to airbrush ‘The Party’ out of existence in China.The American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham) in Beijing kindly invited me to speak when I was there in early August and also did a video interview with me for their website. They followed up by asking me for an article, which was duly written and received with pleasure. Then, the Beijing government intervened. According to AmCham officials, who contacted me about the issue, Beijing government officials called to suggest – which in China means request – that that the video interview with me be taken down.
As a result, the AmCham crew also no longer want to run the article they commissioned and happily accepted, because, they said, their magazine is sent to 1,000-odd government officials.
I quite understand why they don’t want to martyr themselves on my behalf and I told them as much. But such self-censorship by a stalwart publication promoting the virtues of American openness is very telling.
