HONG KONG (Reuters) – In the past two weeks, Hong Kong editor Raymond Yeung has hastily made changes to a draft of a book titled “To Freedom,” replacing the word “revolution” with “protests.” modifying a prohibited slogan. and cut passages that advocate for the independence of the Chinese-ruled city.
The changes were difficult to make, he told Reuters, but impossible to avoid since China passed a national security law on June 30, making broadly defined crimes of secession, subversion, terrorism and collusion with foreign forces punishable. with a life sentence.
“This is really painful,” Yeung said, flipping through pages of the collection of essays by 50 protesters, lawyers, social workers and other participants in the pro-democracy protests that rocked Hong Kong last year.
“This is history. This is the truth,” he said, holding up the book with blue sticky flags on many pages to mark the changes made due to the new law.
Just as the demand for political books was on the rise in Hong Kong after a year of protests, Hong Kong’s rampant and prolific independent publishers are now censoring themselves against the new law.
Hong Kong authorities say freedom of expression remains intact, but in the past two weeks public libraries have removed some books from the shelves, stores have removed decorations related to the protests and the slogan “Free Hong Kong! ! Revolution of our times ”has been declared illegal.
“To Freedom” is the first political book Yeung has taken up as a part-time editor. After Beijing introduced the security law, the original printer for the book was withdrawn and two other printers declined, he said. Another printer agreed to take it anonymously, but wants to get a better idea of how the law is implemented first.
The Hong Kong Business Development Council, which hosts the Hong Kong Annual Book Fair, told exhibitors not to show what they called “illegal books” at the fair scheduled for this week, but did not elaborate further.
The council postponed the fair at the last minute on Monday due to a recent spike in cases of the new coronavirus. He did not specify a new date for the event, which attracts approximately 1 million visitors.
Three pro-Beijing non-governmental groups came together to urge people to report the stalls in fair-selling material promoting Hong Kong’s independence, an issue that is anathema to the Chinese government.
“All citizens have a duty to report the crime,” said Innes Tang, president of PolitiHK Social Strategic, a group behind the campaign. “We are not the police. We are not the ones who say where the red line is. ”
DANGEROUS READING
Jimmy Pang, a veteran local publisher who has participated in all fairs since it started in 1990, called 2020 “the scariest year” due to the security law and economic downturn that was already hurting publishers.
He said the law has prompted publishers and writers to stop the projects, while printers, distributors and bookstores have rejected sensitive books.
For example, Breakazine, a local Christian publication, said it suspended the distribution of its mid-July issue of “Dangerous Reading” while seeking legal advice to navigate the security law.
“Everyone avoids risks by suffering in silence,” said Pang, a spokesman for 50 exhibitors at the fair.
Last year, a unit of Pang’s Sub-Culture Ltd published Chan Yun-chi “6430,” a book of interviews with surviving pro-democracy protesters in the lead-up to the 30th anniversary of the bloody Tiananmen Square crackdown. 1989, a very heavy subject censored in the continent.
“In the future, there will be no sensitive books related to politics,” he said.
Bao Pu, son of Bao Tong, the highest-ranking Chinese Communist Party official jailed for sympathy with Tiananmen protesters, founded New Century Press in 2005 in Hong Kong to publish books based on memoirs and government documents and other sources that versions of events in China often differ from official and could not be published on the mainland.
His clients were mostly visitors to the mainland, a lucrative niche in Hong Kong until China began tightening border controls a decade ago, making it difficult to return books to the mainland.
Given the drop in demand, Bao said he no longer plans to publish such books in Hong Kong. But he urged other publishers to avoid self-censorship.
“If everyone does that, then the law would have a much bigger impact on freedom of expression,” he said.
Sarah Wu Report in Hong Kong; Marius Zaharia and Bill Rigby edition
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