The Chinese call it a matter of mere "technical changes." US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton calls it censorship. Her American publisher calls it breach of contract and wants it fixed -- now.
The former first lady pronounced herself "amazed and outraged" Wednesday that politically sensitive material had been rewritten or removed from the Chinese-language version of her memoir, without the knowledge of her or her US publisher, Simon & Schuster.
The 466-page Chinese edition of Living History -- a best seller -- does not contain Clinton's comments about the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests. A segment about Chinese-American human rights activist Harry Wu is reduced to almost nothing and refers to him as a spy awaiting sentencing.
PHOTO: REUTERS
At least eight other segments were changed or deleted.
"Unbelievable!" the New York senator said outside a Senate hearing in Washington on Wednesday morning.
Asked why she thought the censorship occurred, Clinton replied: "Why does any government keep information? They want to control the opinions and minds of their people." She called such an attempt "increasingly futile" in the Internet era.
Still, such retooling is standard procedure in China, where the government keeps all media on a short leash and sweeps away anything that could threaten its absolute authority or conflict with its version of how the world works.
"We have made technical changes to the content in some parts of the book in order to win more Chinese readers," acknowledged Liu Feng, the deputy editor-in-chief of Yilin Publishing House, which published the Chinese version.
"But," Liu insisted, "the changes do not hurt the integrity of the book."
They're certainly not hurting its sales. Living History is on at least its fourth printing since the memoir was released in China on Aug. 3. More than 200,000 copies have been printed, and bookstores in Beijing report brisk sales.
Simon & Schuster, the book's US publisher, has informed the Chinese publisher that its actions are a breach of contract, it said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Yilin Press represented their edition to be a complete and accurate translation of the English text. In fact, numerous changes and deletions were made to portions of the text dealing with Senator Clinton's views about China and her travels there," the publisher said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese