China’s Censored World

by Evan Osnos, May 2, 2014

In February, while I finished work on a book about China, a publishing company in Shanghai asked for an early
copy, in order to begin a translation. The book follows people I’ve come to know, some prominent, others not,
as they try to change their lives in a country throbbing with possibility — individuals like Gong Haiyan, a
farmer’s daughter and businesswoman who envisions herself in a “race against the clock, to seize the initiative
before it’s lost.”

After reading the manuscript, an editor in Shanghai replied with enthusiasm, but also sent me a list of politically
active people in the narrative who, he wrote, “would be difficult” to include in the Chinese edition. He made a
proposal: “Please kindly let me know if it is possible for us to cooperate on a special version of your book for its
Chinese publication.” I had a choice to make.

The defining fact of China in our time is its contradictions: The world’s largest buyer of BMW, Jaguar and Land
Rover vehicles is ruled by a Communist Party that has tried to banish the word “luxury” from advertisements. It
is home to two of the world’s most highly valued Internet companies (Tencent and Baidu), as well as history’s
most sophisticated effort to censor human expression. China is both the world’s newest superpower and its
largest authoritarian state.

For most of Chinese history, readers had limited access to books from abroad. In the 1960s and ’70s, when
foreign literature was officially restricted to party elites, students circulated handwritten, string-bound copies of
J.D. Salinger, Arthur Conan Doyle and many others. But in the past three decades, rules have relaxed somewhat
and sales of foreign writers have ballooned, thanks to Chinese consumers who are ravenous for new information
about themselves and the world. In 2012, the most recent year for which statistics are available, China’s 580
state-owned publishers acquired the rights to more than 16,000 foreign titles, up nearly tenfold since 1995;
current hot sellers range from Gabriel García Márquez’s “One Hundred Years of Solitude” to Henry A.
Kissinger’s “On China.”

Ever since the reign of the first emperor, who oversaw the burning of Confucian texts in 213 B.C., Chinese
leaders have valued the science of censorship. To release a book in China today, foreign authors must accept the
judgment of a publisher’s in-house censors, who identify names, terms and historical events that the party
considers unflattering or a threat to political stability.

When the Chinese edition of Khaled Hosseini’s novel “The Kite Runner” was published in 2006, critical
references to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan were removed. (For Chinese authors, the stakes are
incomparably larger; they either heed restrictions or lose the ability to publish in their home country.
Prosecutors can cite published writing as evidence of “incitement to subvert state power.”) If publishers
overlook a taboo, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television can pull books
from the shelves and punish those responsible. Similar scrutiny applies to television shows, films and radio
programs, and the government keeps an especially close eye on broadcasting, because it reaches the most
people. When President Obama, in his first inaugural address, mentioned earlier generations who “faced down
fascism and Communism,” China’s state broadcaster cut away. The word “Communism” did not appear on
transcripts published in the Chinese press.

Living and writing in Beijing from 2005 to 2013, I found that the precise boundaries of the censored world were
difficult to map. Though some rules leak to the public — last month, the State Council Information Office
advised all websites to “find and remove the video titled ‘Actual Footage of Chengdu Police Surrounding and
Beating Homeowners Who Were Defending Their Rights”’ — most of the censored world is populated by
unmentionable names and untellable stories, defined by rules that are themselves secret. The Central Propaganda
Department, the highest-ranking agency responsible for “thought work,” does not report on its activities; it is so
averse to attention that its headquarters, on the Avenue of Eternal Peace, have no address or sign. To quantify
Osnos, Evan. "China’s Censored World." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 May 2014. Web. 25 May 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/opinion/sunday/chinas-censored-world.html?_r=0>.
one realm of Chinese censorship, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, in 2012, studied messages on Sina
Weibo, the social media site. They found that more than 16 percent of all posts were deleted because of the
content.

One known fact about China’s censored world is that it is growing. Movie theaters are proliferating by the day,
and Hollywood makes the cuts required to reach them. The makers of “Skyfall,” the latest James Bond film,
removed a scene involving the killing of a Chinese security guard, and a plot line in which Javier Bardem says
he became a villain during his time in Chinese custody. The New York Times has been unable to receive new
residency visas for journalists for more than a year, because it reported on the family wealth of Chinese leaders.
Bloomberg News is facing similar retaliation for its investigations of party officials. In March, the Bloomberg
L.P. chairman, Peter T. Grauer, said the company “should have rethought” the decision to range beyond
business news, because it jeopardized the company’s potential market in China.

But as I considered publishing a book in China, local publishers gradually filled in a road map of the censored
world. On behalf of a company in Beijing, an agent wrote, “To allow the publication in China, the author will
agree to revise nearly 1/4 of the contents.” The publisher had itemized trouble spots chapter by chapter,
beginning with a line in the prologue: “China has never been more pluralistic, urban, and prosperous, yet it is the
only country in the world with a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in prison.” (The first half of the sentence could
stay.)

Some taboos were foreseeable; the publisher worried about a mention of Mao’s Great Leap Forward, because
that project resulted in a famine that killed between 30 and 45 million people. Other problems were subtler;
since the party credits its economic success to Deng Xiaoping, I was advised not to lavish too much praise on
the contributions of his peers. Judging by the notes, the censor seemed to grow exasperated: “Chapter 14: The
whole chapter is about Chen Guangcheng.” (I write about Mr. Chen, a blind lawyer now in exile in the United
States, as an example of Chinese determination to defy the circumstances of birth.)

In some cases, the censors’ requirements startled me: The __[12]__ politician Bo Xilai, a one-time rising star
now serving a life sentence for corruption, was convicted in a trial __[13]__ by state television, so why is
discussion of him sensitive? The __[14]__, it seemed, is how it can be __[15]__, and how much. When an
official version of history has been written, an unofficial version becomes __[16]__.

A foreign author who wants to publish in China can find many reasons to tolerate the demands for censorship. A
book, even compromised, might inspire a new generation of readers to demand information from beyond their
borders; it might help pay for the writing of the next book (or, let’s face it, a new roof). As a writer, it is
tempting to rationalize the discomfort by emphasizing the percentage of the book that survives the cuts, rather
than the percentage that is censored.

But those explanations fail to surmount an inexorable problem. The most difficult part of writing about
contemporary China is capturing its proportions: How much of the story is truly inspiring, and how much of it is
truly grim? How much of its values are reflected in technology start-ups and stories of self-creation, and how
much of its values are reflected in the Great Firewall and abuses of power? It is tempting to accept censorship as
a matter of the margins — a pruning that leaves the core of the story intact — but altering the proportions of a
portrait of China gives a false reflection of how China appears to the world at a moment when it is making
fundamental choices about what kind of country it will become.

In the end, I decided not to publish my book in mainland China. (It will be available to Chinese readers from a
publisher in Taiwan.) To produce a “special version” that plays down dissent, trims the Great Leap Forward, and
recites the official history of Bo Xilai’s corruption would not help Chinese readers. On the contrary, it would
endorse a false image of the past and present. As a writer, my side of the bargain is to give the truest story I can.

Osnos, Evan. "China’s Censored World." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 May 2014. Web. 25 May 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/opinion/sunday/chinas-censored-world.html?_r=0>.
 Pre-reading

Do you believe in absolute freedom of speech/freedom of expression? Why or why not?
How large of a role do you think a government should play in monitoring published material?

Vocabulary

lavish verb to use or give something in large, unhindered amounts
contradiction noun direct opposition, often found within one thing or idea
ravenous adjective very, very hungry or eager to consume or obtain something
scrutiny noun a very close look at something; extremely detailed investigation
heed verb listen to and obey
precise adjective exact
quantify verb to measure something in understandable terms
proliferation noun a rapid and often excessive increase or spread of something
rationalize verb to make something sound logical or rational
dissent noun resistance
recite verb to repeat something from memory, often formally

Multiple Choice

Directions: Choose the one best answer to each question.

1. What is one thing that does not solicit censorship in China, according to the article?
a) mentioning politically-sensitive names
b) speaking poorly of communism
c) writing about historical events that do not reflect China in a positive way
d) upholding democracy

2. Which newspaper has had trouble sending its employees into China?
a) the New York Times
b) Bloomberg News
c) Nobel Peace Prize
d) Sina Weibo

3. What does the Central Propaganda Department in China lack?
a) video footage
b) rules
c) an address
d) unrestricted internet access

4. In order to publish his book in China, the author of this article was told that he’d have to
change approximately how much of his book?
a) 10%
b) 25%
c) 40%
d) 60%
Osnos, Evan. "China’s Censored World." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 May 2014. Web. 25 May 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/opinion/sunday/chinas-censored-world.html?_r=0>.
 Short Answer

Directions: Answer the following questions with a short but complete answer.

5. What change has happened in China in the last forty or fifty years?

6. What ironic characteristics of China does the author point out?

7. Why does the author of this article decide not to publish his book in mainland China?

Synonyms

Directions: Find the word or phrase in the right-hand column that could meaningfully replace one of
the words on the left.

8. _____ prominent a. inconceivable f. excessive

9. _____ altering b. unstoppable g. dangerous
10. _____ retaliation c. upgrading h. vengeance
11. _____ inexorable d. important l. concern
e. changing

Fill in the Blank

Directions: Choose the word that best fits in each blank.

12. _____ a. problem g. current
13. _____ b. lost h. unwelcome
14. _____ c. former i. erased
15. _____ d. hidden j. believable
16. _____ e. mentioned k. covered
f. angry

Discussion

17. Living in China, how “censored” or restricted do you feel? When do you feel restricted, or
when do you feel like you are being affected by censorship in some way?
18. If you were Evan Osnos, would you have published the book in China? Why or why not?
19. Do you agree with Osnos when he says that changing his writing would share “a false image
of the past and present”? Why or why not?
19. What are some benefits that China’s censorship does to its citizens? What are some harms?
20. Are there any parts of this article that remind you of censorship in other places, other
situations, or other times in history?

Osnos, Evan. "China’s Censored World." The New York Times. The New York Times, 02 May 2014. Web. 25 May 2015.
<http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/03/opinion/sunday/chinas-censored-world.html?_r=0>.