China 'Effectively Bans' Hillary Clinton's New Memoir 'Hard Choices'
China has "effectively" banned Hillary Clinton's newly released memoir, Hard Choices, as the former Secretary of State criticizes the Asian country's dedication to democracy, its government leaders, and its treatment of human rights lawyer Chen Guangcheng in her new book.
A spokesperson for Clinton's publisher, Simon & Schuster, said in a recent interview that Chinese publishers had refused to purchase the translation rights for Clinton's new memoir, and they have also refused to sell the book in English.
Simon & Schuster president Jonathan Karp told Buzzfeed in a recent interview that China's rejection of Clinton's book amounts to an "effective ban" on the memoir in the Asian country. "It's outrageous and unfortunate," Karp said. "And it's a pretty clear indication of the low level of intellectual freedom in China right now."
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Hard Choices, a 656-page description of Clinton's time as the U.S. Secretary of State, contains chapters in which Clinton is critical of China's government officials and their policies, both internationally and domestically. At one point, Clinton writes in the book "It's not a secret that the center of the anti-democratic movement in Asia is China."
Clinton also discusses China's handling of the diplomatic situation involving Chen Guangcheng, a human rights activist who was forced to escape the country after he was put on house arrest for challenging the country's controversial One Child Policy. Chen eventually sought refuge at the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, but his situation strained tensions between China and the U.S. regarding the Asian country's questionable human rights record.
The former Secretary of State also dedicated another chapter in her book to the democratization of Myanmar, another issue opposed by Chinese leaders. She also criticized the Chinese government for censoring the broadcast of her speech, made at the United Nations Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. The former secretary of state "felt the heavy hand of Chinese censorship when the government blocked the broadcast of my speech," she writes.
According to Buzzfeed, 13 countries, including Taiwan, chose to buy Clinton's new book "blind," meaning they purchased the translation rights before the contents of the book were released. China's strict government censorship, however, caused publishing businesses in the country to practice self-censorship in regard to Hard Choices.
Other countries with questionable censorship practices, including Russia, have purchased rights to the book.
