Those who seek to rewrite history can only succeed if others conspire with them. Censors prevail only if there are no alternative versions of history with which their sanitized accounts can be compared. A vital and active marketplace of ideas will weed out weak, incomplete and incoherent arguments. Last week, Cambridge University Press appeared to have joined the Chinese government in its efforts to limit intellectual inquiry on topics it deems too sensitive. To its credit, CUP this week reversed course and confirmed its support for academic freedom. The reversal provides an important lesson in dealing with China.
CUP acknowledged last week that 315 articles, some decades old, published in China Quarterly, a leading journal on Chinese studies, would no longer be available in China. The list of banned articles is a Rosetta stone for Chinese government sensitivities, with topics ranging from Tibet, the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Cultural Revolution, ethnic tensions in Xinjian and Hong Kong's struggle for democracy. Banned authors include some of the worlds' most notable China scholars.
CUP said that it was banning the articles at the request of the Chinese import agency — a government office — but did so to ensure that "other academic and educational material we publish remains available to researchers and educators in this market." Reportedly, CUP received a similar request to ban over 1,000 e-books.