Chinese booksellers thrive abroad as China tightens control at home

Independent Chinese booksellers face government crackdown, leading to closures and arrests, prompting some to leave China for freedom.

Yu Miao smiles as he stands among the 10,000 books crowded on rows of bamboo shelves in his newly reopened bookstore. It’s in Washington’s vibrant Dupont Circle neighbourhood, far from its last location in Shanghai, where the Chinese government forced him out of business six years ago.

“There is no pressure from the authorities here,” said Mr. Yu, the owner of JF Books, Washington’s only Chinese bookseller. “I want to live without fear.”

Independent bookstores have become a new battleground in China, swept up in the ruling Communist Party’s crackdown on dissent and free expression. The Associated Press found that at least a dozen bookstores in the world’s second-largest economy have been shuttered or targeted for closure in the last few months alone, squeezing the already tight space for press freedom. One bookstore owner was arrested over four months ago.

The crackdown has had a chilling effect on China’s publishing industry. Bookstores are common in China, but many are state-owned. Independent bookstores are governed by an intricate set of rules with strict controls now being more aggressively policed, according to bookstore owners. Printing shops and street vendors are also facing more rigorous government inspections by the National Office Against Pornography and Illegal Publication.

The office did not respond to interview requests from The Associated Press. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a statement to AP, said it was not aware of a crackdown on bookstores.

Mr. Yu isn’t alone in taking his business out of the country. Chinese bookstores have popped up in Japan, France, Netherlands and elsewhere in the U.S. in recent years, because of both stricter controls in China and growing Chinese communities abroad.

It’s not just the books’ contents that are making Chinese authorities wary. In many communities, bookstores are cultural centres where critical thinking is encouraged, and conversations can veer into politics and other topics not welcomed by the authorities.