Long Xinmin, Red China's Director of the General Administration of Press and Publication (Gapp), was removed from his job sometime this week. China's state media noted the cause for Long's dismissal was "an outcry over a plan to ban eight books."
No additional details were reported just that an "outcry" was the cause and the eight books were not identified. UCLA's Asia Institute filled in some of this story's "gapps" :-) as noted at this weblink:
http://www.asiamedia.ucla.edu/article.asp?parentid=68269
With the 2008 Summer Olympics fast approaching China clearly wants to present the image that it is an open society by cracking down on its chief censor. But what constitutes an "outcry"? The last outcry I remember was the tanks nearly crushing protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989.
Regardless of China's intentions it is nice to see a censor become unemployed but let me offer some follow up action items for China's rulers:
- Fire the rest of your censors
- Allow full Internet access to all users in China
- Host a book festival in Tiananmen Square that includes the authors of the eight books mentioned earlier reading from their works
Progress,
Todd
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