At the American Interest, Francis Fukuyama provides a list of cuts made to the Chinese edition of his latest book, “Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy.” The edits cover such sensitive topics as China’s political system and its legitimacy, ideology, Mao Zedong, the Tiananmen protests, the Great Famine, corruption, factional politics, and particularly rule of law and the constitution, notes China Digital Times, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy.
The sticking point seems to be the legal system and questions about the Party’s legitimacy going forward, the Washington Post’s Emily Rauhala notes. At a time when the press can’t say enough about Xi Jinping’s power, it’s interesting that the censors still bother to airbrush this type of book.
