The following is a partial translation by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China of the "Notice Regarding the Printing and Promulgation of the "Measures on the Recording of Important Topics of Books, Periodicals, Audio/Visual Productions and Electronic Publications," issued by the General Administration for Press and Publications on October 10, 1997. The Chinese text was retrieved from the Qingdao Press and Publishing Bureau's Web site on February 21, 2006.
Article 3: In these Measures "important topics" refers to any selections whose contents relate to such matters as national security and social stability or which shall produce a relatively large influence on such things as the nation's government, economy, culture or military matters, and shall specifically include:
(i) topics concerning documents or literature of the party or the nation;
(ii) works and literature concerning any former or current leaders of the party or the nation, and selections concerning the circumstances of their lives or work;
(iii) topics which deal with party or state secrets;
(iv) topics which compile introductions of the structure of government entities or the circumstances of party or state leaders;
(v) topics which deal with ethnic or religious issues;
(vi) topics which deal with the building of national defense and the battles, combat, work or lives of important figures of China's military in any historical period;
(vii) topics which deal with the "Cultural Revolution";
(viii) topics which deal with any significant historical matters or important historical figures in the history of the Chinese Communist Party;
(ix) topics which deal with top level figures in the Republican Party and any other top level objectives of the united front;
(x) topics which deal with the Soviet Union, eastern Europe and all other party brothers and nationally significant matters and primary leaders;
(xi) topics which deal with maps of China's borders;
(xii) topics which deal with books on the Hong Kong Special Administration Zone, Macao and the Taiwan region;
(xiii) topics of large scale translations of ancient texts into modern Chinese (equal to or greater than 5,000,000 characters)
(xiv) topics of imported animated reading material; and
(xv) selections whose contents are any type of directory of entity names or communication addresses.
The scope of the important topics listed above shall be adjusted and promulgated by the General Administration of Press and Publication in accordance with circumstances.
Article 5: Within 30 days of deciding to accept recordation, GAPP shall provide an answer or opinion to the applicant, and if no answer or opinion is provided within this time, the recordation shall be automatically effective.
Article 7: The primarily responsible person at any publishing unit that violates these Measures and publishes publications with contents within the scope of important topics without recording shall be subject to administrative punishment by the provincial Office of Press and Publication or the Office of Press and Publication that is the superior responsible agency. Publication and distribution of the publication shall cease, and the publishing unit shall be ordered to undertake recording procedures in accordance with these Measures. Violations of the "Regulations on the Administration of Publishing" shall be punished in accordance with the relevant regulations.
