Journalist Xiao Jiansheng's academically inclined book Chinese Civilisation Revisited was sure to cause a stir among mainland leaders. Intellectual debate always prompts disquiet in Beijing. Sensitivity was heightened by the volume being put out to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the Communist Party taking power and links to a Hong Kong publisher perceived as controversial. Predictably, it has been banned.
The decision raises the usual issues of the party's fragility and the lack of freedom of speech. If such works were allowed to openly circulate, the nation would be so much the richer. Discussion of issues raised - in this case, traditional values - would further development. A single book will not mean the downfall of 5,000 years of Chinese civilisation.
Xiao's work has suffered the same fate as the similarly controversial book The Ugly Chinaman and the Crisis of Chinese Culture and the documentary River Elegy. Its banning on the mainland does not mean it will go unread, though: authorities' rejection of it has ensured it will now be eagerly sought. Copies published in Hong Kong will make their way across the border. Digital versions will spread virus-like through the internet.
The book was approved for publication two years ago by the publishing arm of the prestigious Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. It looks broadly at Chinese history and does not touch on the past six decades. Bao Pu, of Hong Kong's New Century Press, wants to publish it; he is the son of Bao Tong , the most senior official jailed over the 1989 Tiananmen protests.
Book bannings are self-defeating. The academics who were going to be Xiao's main audience will still find a way to read his book. But attention beyond learning and research institutions has been drawn to it by the ban. Sales and demand will increase. A publication that may otherwise have caused only small ripples will now be a must-read. Authorities would have done much better to have practised what the constitution itself stipulates: allow freedom of speech and the free flow of information. The nation will be richer for it.