Chinese Official: Government Has Confiscated 1.4 Billion "Illegal Publications" Since 1994

July 1, 2005

Chinese authorities convened a national Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications (SAPSDIP) Symposium on June 23 in Shenyang. Xinhua reports that Liu Binjie, deputy director of the SAPSDIP Task Force and the General Administration of Press and Publication, told the symposium that, since the launch of the Task Force in 1994, Chinese authorities have confiscated more than 1.4 billion illegal publications, and shut down over 40,000 print shops.

Chinese authorities convened a national Sweep Away Pornography and Strike Down Illegal Publications (SAPSDIP) Symposium on June 23 in Shenyang. Xinhua reports that Liu Binjie, deputy director of the SAPSDIP Task Force and the General Administration of Press and Publication, told the symposium that, since the launch of the Task Force in 1994, Chinese authorities have confiscated more than 1.4 billion illegal publications, and shut down over 40,000 print shops.

The Xinhua report and Liu's comments focused primarily on pirated publications, but according to a report on the SAPSDIP Web site, the SAPSDIP campaign is "first of all an anti-infiltration and anti-subversion political struggle." SAPSDIP Task Force members and official Chinese news media report that the campaign has led to the banning of hundreds of scientific, political science, and legal newspapers and magazines, and confiscation of hundreds of thousands of other political and religious publications because they were not approved by government censors.