2014-10-13
Police cordon off an area where pro-democracy demonstrators have gathered in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong, Oct. 13, 2014.
AFP
The ruling Chinese Communist Party has stepped up action in mainland China against anyone showing public support for Hong Kong’s Occupy Central pro-democracy demonstrations, detaining activists on public order charges and censoring authors.
China’s media regulatory body has now issued an internal notice requiring that books by Chinese-American author Yu Ying-shih and Taiwan writer Giddens Ko, known by his pen-name “Nine Knives,” be taken off the shelves of all booksellers, according to social media posts and an official media commentary on Monday.
Also listed as being on the publishing blacklist were Zheng Shiping, known by his pen-name “Ye Fu,” Mao Yushi, outspoken Beijing University legal expert Zhang Qianfan, pro-democracy activist Chen Ziming, and Hong Kong commentator Leung Man-tao.
Yu has been outspoken in his support for the “Sunflower” student protest movement that occupied Taiwan’s legislature in March, and has openly encouraged Hong Kong students’ participation in the Occupy Central movement, which entered its third week on Monday.
In what online comments have compared to a Qin dynasty book-burning campaign targeting Confucian writings and scholars, the blacklist ensures that no one on the list can now be published in mainland China.
“Some on the list are foreign nationals but active in Chinese politics, including openly supporting Hong Kong’s Occupy Central movement or ‘Taiwan independence,'” the Global Times newspaper, which has close ties with party mouthpiece the People’s Daily, said in a commentary on Monday.
“Some are Chinese mainland scholars but are opposed to the country’s political system,” it said.
‘Push-back’ warning
It said the authors concerned should be prepared for “push-back” when adopting views that oppose the government.
“If one has positioned himself at odds to the country’s mainstream political path, he shouldn’t expect his influence to keep on rising without disruption,” the paper said.
Taiwan current affairs commentator Chen Yuen-chun said that those on the list are among the best contemporary writers in the Chinese language.
“Nowadays, [writers] can’t touch upon anything to do with democracy, freedom, universal or humanitarian values, or human rights,” Chen said, adding, “In the past it was possible to allude to such things in a roundabout manner, but there’s not even room to do that now.”
She said the authors on the list are all regarded as very moderate in their views.
