Book Debate Raises Questions of Self-Censorship by Foreign Groups in China; New York Times, 4/27/16

Edward Wong, New York Times; Book Debate Raises Questions of Self-Censorship by Foreign Groups in China:

"Robert T. Rupp, associate executive director of the bar association’s business unit, which oversees publishing, gave a statement to Foreign Policy that said the decision not to publish Mr. Teng’s book was made for “economic reasons, based on market research and sales forecasting.”

Mr. Teng said he did not believe that. What the bar association had done, he said, was emblematic of a larger problem in China. “Many N.G.O.s self-censor in order not to make the Chinese government angry, so they can continue their work in China,” he said.

The bar association came under criticism last year by some China experts and legal scholars for not taking a stronger stand against a harsh crackdown by the Chinese authorities on hundreds of human rights lawyers and their associates.

The accusations by Mr. Teng have inspired an even greater outcry. The Wall Street Journal published an editorial with the headline “American Self-Censorship Association.” The co-chairmen of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, Representative Christopher H. Smith of New Jersey and Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, wrote a letter to the bar association demanding that it tell them whether it had rescinded the book offer because of perceived or real threats to its China programs."