The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.
Verified Sina Weibo user @孙小波0105 recently posted this notice. He self-identifies as the “Xinhua Pioneer Publishing Center Chief Inspector.”
Publishing Alert
In the near future, the following [book] topics will be shot down in the process of contacting authors, choosing topics, suggesting titles, designing covers, writing promotional material, filling out CIP requests, and passing manuscripts by censors:
Topics leaning towards superstition, vulgarity, and gossip, including: banqueting and drinking, Way of the Wolf [zh], human networks, feng shui, fortune telling, Thick Black Theory, proselytism, [political] power struggles, extramarital affairs, homosexuality, drug use, Strategy in Handling People, terror, gore, officialdom, and campus thrillers.
Authors who discuss negative aspects of national politics and society.
Manuscripts touching on the military, diplomacy, and both domestic and foreign leaders will be reported as important cases, recorded, and sent to the General Administration of Press and Publication [GAPP]* for review. (April 26, 2013)
*In March, GAPP was merged with the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT) to form the State Administration of Press Publication, Radio, Film and Television. However, the abbreviation used in this document refers to GAPP.
Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these instructions as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.” CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.
