MCLC: hurdles of publishing Xi Jinping book

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: kirk (denton.2 at osu.edu)
Subject: hurdles of publishing Xi Jinping book
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Source: Sinosphere blog, NYT (2/19/14):
http://sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/19/a-chilling-phone-call-adds-t
o-hurdles-of-publishing-xi-jinping-book/

A Chilling Phone Call Adds to Hurdles of Publishing Xi Jinping Book
By CHRIS BUCKLEY

The exiled writer Yu Jie takes a bleak view of President Xi Jinping of
China. In his latest book, still awaiting publication, Mr. Yu describes
Mr. Xi as a thuggish politician driven by a dangerous compound of Maoist
nostalgia and authoritarian, expansionist impulses.

No wonder Mr. Yu’s jeremiad, “Godfather of China Xi Jinping,” has no
chance of appearing in mainland Chinese bookstores. But Mr. Yu, who lives
in Virginia, has said plans to publish the book have encountered worrisome
hurdles in Hong Kong, the self-administered territory that preserved a
robust tradition of free speech after returning to Chinese sovereignty in
1997. One Hong Kong publisher who planned to issue the book was arrested
when he visited mainland China, and now a second has abandoned plans to
publish it after receiving a menacing phone call, Mr. Yu said.

Mr. Yu left China in early 2012 after years of increasingly harsh
surveillance and harassment by the police and by security guards hired by
the government. He said the fate of his latest book reflected growing
pressures from the Chinese government on writers and publishers, including
on Hong Kong’s long-lively community of independent publishers and
bookstores. Mr. Yu has published similarly damning books about China’s
previous president, Hu Jintao, and a former prime minister, Wen Jiabao.

“If this book can’t be published in Hong Kong, at a minimum, it
demonstrates that freedom of press and publication in Hong Kong is in
retreat,” Mr. Yu said in a telephone interview. “I argue that Xi Jinping’s
entire approach is harsh repression at home and expansionism abroad, so
China increasingly resembles a fascist state.”

The Hong Kong publisher who first agreed to issue “Godfather of China Xi
Jinping,” Yiu Mantin, was arrested on a visit to mainland China on charges
of falsely labeling and smuggling bottles of industrial chemicals. But Mr.
Yiu’s son, Edmond Yiu, said he believed the authorities’ real reason for
the arrest was his father’s publishing work, including Mr. Yu’s planned
book.

Wu Yisan, another small Hong Kong publisher who then offered to issue the
book, recently received a chilling phone call that has deterred him, Mr.
Yu said. The author said he believed the call was made by, or with the
approval of, security officials in Beijing, but he said he had no firm
evidence. The publisher, Mr. Wu, did not answer repeated phone calls and
an email. Mr. Wu has said he will not comment publicly on the matter,
according to Mr. Yu.

Mr. Wu “received a telephone call saying very clearly that Beijing — the
caller didn’t say whether it was from the authorities or from what
department — thought the contents of the book were highly sensitive, and
absolutely cannot be published,” according to Mr. Yu, citing an email from
Mr. Wu.

“The message was that if he went ahead with publication, then his personal
safety and that of his family couldn’t be guaranteed,” Mr. Yu said. “His
wife became extremely worried. His wife was adamantly opposed to
publishing the book.”

Mr. Yu said he still hoped to find a publisher in Hong Kong, among the
several that have no business dealings or vulnerable family ties in
mainland China. If that fails, he said, a publisher in Taiwan could issue
the book there and prepare an edition for sale in Hong Kong.

Many books about Communist Party politics published in Hong Kong are
bought by mainland visitors who sneak them back to the mainland, despite
the censorship and customs checks the ruling Communist Party uses to
maintain an overwhelmingly positive view of leaders. If Mr. Yu’s book does
appear, readers will find an unsparingly negative report card for Mr. Xi.
The title was inspired by Mr. Xi’s comment that as a young man he watched
“The Godfather,” Francis Ford Coppola’s famed depiction of a New York
crime boss and his family.

In an excerpt from the book that Mr. Yu sent by email, he wrote:

“The Hollywood film ‘The Godfather’ is Xi Jinping’s political study
guide,” wrote Mr. Yu. “The Communist Party is China’s biggest Mafia, and
the party boss Xi Jinping is the Godfather of China.”