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(China) Can academic publishers resist self-censorship in China? – Times Higher Education (George Cooper | December 2022)

Posted by Connar Allen in Research Integrity on January 7, 2023
Keywords: Controversy/Scandal, Institutional responsibilities, International, Journal, Research results

The Linked Original Item was Posted On December 8, 2022

Great wall under sunshine during sunset

Five years on from Cambridge University Press’ controversial compliance with a Chinese government request to make more than 300 articles unavailable to Chinese readers, publishers are increasingly self-censoring content on ‘sensitive’ topics. But is the trade-off justified, asks George Cooper

.

Free and open discussion in the academic press can inform public consciousness and debate. This is why state censorship and the blocking of academic titles during the last few years have been such a concern. So it is deeply concerning that academic titles are self-censoring to avoid subjects the Chinese government has deemed sensitive.  Academia should speak truth to power not timidly accept that there are matters they are not permitted to discuss. Self-censorship by publications is not acceptable. We applaud Times Higher Education for this piece.  We have included links to seven related items.

The Great Firewall of China has recently been upgraded. Ahead of the five-yearly National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party in October, a new crackdown blocked a series of encryption tools that allowed internet users to bypass censorship controls, with Google results now off-limits to even the most digitally savvy Chinese citizens.

There is, however, a more insidious way of censoring ideas that the Chinese government does not want to be circulating freely: remove them at source from the scholarly literature. That is what has been happening in recent years, with books and articles disappearing from certain academic publishers’ online platforms in China if they feature blacklisted keywords, such as Tiananmen, Tibet, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Falun Gong, Hong Kong.

The issue came to light five years ago, when it emerged in the UK’s national press that Cambridge University Press (CUP) had removed “sensitive” content from its prestigious China studies journal, China Quarterly. Since then, other publishers have faced similar accusations of bowing to pressure from Beijing. Springer Nature has restricted access to more than 1,000 articles, while Taylor & Francis, Sage Publishing and Brill have navigated strict content restrictions.

Although some publishers have found routes to navigate these restrictions without self-censoring their online platforms, others appear to be more deeply enmeshed in China’s censorship apparatus – and in recent years, the access constraints facing so-called controversial papers have gone much further than many believe, straying beyond familiar red-flag topics on an unprecedented scale.

Can academic publishers resist self-censorship in China?
Five years on from Cambridge University Press’ controversial compliance with a Chinese government request to make more than 300 articles unavailable to Chinese readers, publishers are increasingly self-censoring content on ‘sensitive’ topics. But is the trade-off justified, asks George Cooper

Related Reading

(China) Academy’s database boycott may herald Chinese publishing shake-up – Times Higher Education (Pola Lem | May 2022)

China clamping down on coronavirus research, deleted pages suggest – The Conversation (Stephanie Kirchgaessner, et al | April 2020.)

(China) Chinese state censorship of COVID-19 research represents a looming crisis for academic publishers – London School of Economics Impact Blog (George Cooper | April 2020)

Censorship in a China Studies Journal – Inside Higher Ed (Elizabeth Redden | April 2019)

Repressive Experiences ‘Rare but Real’ in China Studies – INSIDE Higher Ed (Elizabeth Redden | September 2018)

Forced to comply or shut down, Cambridge University Press’s China Quarterly removes 300 articles in China – Quartz (Echo Huang and Isabella Steger | August 2017)

The Walls Around Us — Why Cambridge University Press’ Predicament Demands Attention – Scholarly Kitchen (Kent Anderson | August 2017)

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