... may be inaccurate, of course, but very disturbing if it's all true:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/29/readers-digest-chinese-stooge-censorship

Yes, very scary - if China controls cheap printing, they can control what gets spread even beyond their boundaries.

Mind you, 'twas ever thus. I know of two authors, one current, one Georges Simenon, who, in books where were basically sci-fi Fantasy, were asked to make their all-purpose baddies not-German, because the German market is the biggest in Europe for English-language books...

Despite the fact that I'm replying to this almost a year later, the subject still resonates, in the wake of the furore over The Interview. Every time a publisher, of any kind of medium, wavers in the face of that type of pressure, they make it so much harder for the next publisher to stand up to bullies.

But, it seems to me, 'twas ever thus, when money is at stake. Look how often Saudi Arabia has been able to twist the arms of British institutions, dangling the loss of a lucrative contract in order to deflect official investigations into impropriety. Indeed, look how willing our Government was to lower flags to half-mast, in the wake of the death of that country's king. I've never known that to happen for any other country's head of state.

Next, we'll have politicians threatening to sue the BBC for refusing to give them air time. Oh, hang on a sec...