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Beijing Tried to Censor American Political Science Review

Radio Free Asia recently reported on how the Chinese authorities attempted to impose censorship over the Cambridge University Press. First they requested the removal of contents from The China Quarterly and the Journal of Asian Studies (http://chinascope.org/archives/13070). Beijing is also reported to have requested that Cambridge University Press remove articles from the American Political Science Review. The publisher rejected the request.

American Political Science Review is the highest-ranked academic publication on Political Science in the U.S. The Chinese government’s censorship of this journal shows that Beijing’s political censorship over academic publications has expanded.”

Political Science Professor Xia Ming of the City University of New York pointed out that China’s oversight of overseas academic publications has evolved in three stages.

Stage one: Only focus on Chinese content. Articles written in English can be published.

Stage two: Regardless of whether they are written in English or Chinese, an article’s subject matter cannot touch certain areas, such as Falun Gong, the Cultural Revolution, Tibet, Xinjiang, the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) history, and the military.

Stage three: Even if the publication is not about China studies and does not touch the “sensitive” topics, if it is about universal values, democracy, the rule of law, and other such topics, it is subject to censorship.

“Beijing will even censor a purely academic publication (such as the American Political Science Review that does not have a strong political position regarding China). It is because the Chinese government does not want the public and academia in China to access academic articles discussing the pros and cons of different political systems in order to prevent people from developing doubts about the legitimacy of the CCP regime.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, September 10, 2017
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/meiti/hc-09102017141334.html