U.S. books in trade war crosshairs

Publishers in China curb printing of American titles despite popularity.

SHANGHAI — China has taken aim at major American businesses as it looks for ways to retaliate against President Trump’s mounting tariffs. So far it has targeted cars, beef and soybeans — and, apparently, Bob Woodward’s latest tale of Washington dysfunction and intrigue.

“Fear: Trump in the White House,” which Woodward wrote in 2018, is one of hundreds of American books held up by Chinese publishing regulators since the trade war intensified this year. Publishers inside and outside China say the release of American books has come to a virtual standstill, cutting them off from a big market of voracious readers.

“American writers and scholars are very important in every sector,” said Sophie Lin, an editor at a private publishing company in Beijing, but after new titles failed to gain approval, she said, her company stopped editing and translating about a dozen pending books to cut costs.

The Chinese book world is cautiously optimistic that a partial trade truce reached this month between Beijing and Washington will break the logjam, according to book editors and others in the publishing industry. But they also worry that American books could be targeted in future crackdowns. Under Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, the Communist Party has worked to reduce the influence of foreign media. Even before the trade war intensified, some say, Chinese regulators were taking a tougher stance on foreign books.

‘Chinese publishers will definitely change their focus. Publishing American books is now a risky business.’ Andy Liu, Chinese publishing company editor

People in the publishing industry are reluctant to discuss publicly which books have been held up for fear that Beijing will target them for speaking out, but a review of lists of books that had been set to be published this year shows a wide variety of best-sellers and academic titles alike that have failed to appear as promised. Besides Woodward’s book, they include a translation of the 1973 novel “Child of God,” by Cormac McCarthy; “Marriage: A History,” Stephanie Coontz’s nonfiction look at humanity’s most intimate partnership; and “China and Japan,” about the turbulent history between the Asian giants, by Ezra Vogel.

Reasons for the delayed publication of each title are not clear. For example, some people in the publishing industry wondered whether the political content of Woodward’s book, rather than the trade war, stymied its release. The Communist Party’s Central Publicity Department, which manages book approval process, didn’t respond to faxed questions. Still, publishing industry insiders describe a near freeze of regulatory approvals, one that could make the publishing industry reluctant to buy the rights to sell American books in China.

“Chinese publishers will definitely change their focus,” said Andy Liu, an editor at a Beijing publishing company, adding that the U.S. was one of China’s most frequent and profitable sources of books. “Publishing American books is now a risky business.”

While China is known for censorship, it is also the world’s second-largest publishing market after the U.S., according to the International Publishers Association. Even some foreign books that one might think would run afoul of Communist Party censors can be found in stores. George Orwell’s “1984,” a fictional condemnation of totalitarianism, is widely read and considered a classic. A number of books by Ayn Rand, the patron saint of far-right capitalism, also have been translated into Chinese.