China blocks American books as trade war simmers

China has taken aim at major American businesses as it looks for ways to retaliate against President Donald Trump’s mounting tariffs. 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. “It has had a tremendous impact on us and on the industry.”

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 the partial trade truce reached this month between Beijing and Washington will break the logjam, according to book editors and others in the publishing industry who spoke to The New York Times. Already, they said, some have won approvals after China celebrated its National

Day on Oct. 1, a politically perilous event that had Chinese officials on edge.

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 to make room for Chinese books, movies and television shows. Even before the trade war intensified, some say, Chinese regulators were taking a tougher stance on foreign books.