Two publishers from the United Kingdom have reportedly censored books for Western audiences in order to maintain their ability to have books cheaply produced in Communist China.
British publishers Octopus Books and Quatro have allegedly removed references to subjects deemed off-limits by the Chinese Communist Party, such as Taiwan and Tibet, from books intended for readers outside of China because of their desire to maintain contracts with printer companies in the country, according to a report from the Financial Times.
The paper claimed to have obtained documents proving that the two publishers made stealth edits to books. According to FT, Octopus has removed references to Taiwan in at least two books and in another instance censored an entire section about the island nation, which Beijing claims ownership over, despite never ruling over the country, which has had its own independent and democratic government, as well as having a distinct culture, currency, written language, and military.
The report also claimed that British picture book publisher Quarto removed references to famed Hong Kong dissident artist Ai Weiwei from bestseller This Book is Anti-Racist. Quarto also allegedly edited works to change references to Taiwanese nationality to “East Asian” and altered texts on the issue of Tibet to fall in line with Beijing’s claim that it has always been the territory of China, despite its previous independence prior to the 1951 annexation by Mao Zedong’s forces.
An employee for Hachette, which owns Octopus Books, told the paper that the company does not agree with the censorship on a “moral level” but said that it “does not disagree enough to increase the price of [its] books.”
Further backing up the claims, the paper claimed to have obtained a memo produced by US printing firm RR Donnelley & Sons which said that its Chinese printers were barred from printing books containing the human rights abuses in the Xinjiang region or that the Chinese virus originated in China.
Other major institutions in America outside of the publishing industry have also kowtowed to the whims of Beijing, including the NFL and the NBA, both of whom have placated the communist regime on the issues of Taiwan and Hong Kong, respectively.
American globe manufacturer MOVA has even sold globes to Americans featuring the so-called nine-dash line which outlines the CCP’s dubious territorial claims in the South China Sea.
Last year, German publisher Carlsen also caved to the demands of China, going so far as to physically destroy copies of a children’s book which claimed that the Wuhan virus emerged from China.
British publishers also have a history of editing works to appease the communist regime, with academic publishers Springer Nature and Cambridge University Press previously facing criticism for blocking hundreds of articles from being accessed in China.
A spokesman for Quatro denied that they had made any changes at the request of Chinese printers but said that the company has a “fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of our shareholders” and therefore will continue to work with Chinese suppliers.
A spokesman for Octopus Books told the paper that books with sensitive topics are still printed outside of China and that any edits to books “are not material and we always ask the permission of the author first to check they are comfortable to proceed”.
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