Books by writers sympathetic to Hong Kong and Taiwan student movements available 'while stocks last'

Books by several prominent mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan authors remained on shelves yesterday "while stocks last", despite a ban order issued by the mainland's publication regulator at the weekend.

The proscribed authors include Tang Prize recipient and Chinese American historian Yu Ying-shih, Hong Kong critic and TV host Leung Man-tao, Taiwanese writer and film director Giddens Ko, liberal economist Mao Yushi, Peking University law professor Zhang Qianfan and columnist Xu Zhiyuan.

News spread quickly on mainland social media on Saturday that the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television had verbally ordered publishers to stop publishing books for the listed writers, while books by Yu and Ko were ordered to be removed from shelves.

No explicit reason was given, although many of the writers are known for their liberal views, including on Hong Kong's Occupy Central sit-ins and Taiwan's "sunflower" student movement earlier this year.

Sources from three independent publishers in Guangxi, Beijing and Tianjin, confirmed the news yesterday.

"Yu Ying-shih is a sensitive scholar. We tried hard and were under great stress to publish his works earlier this year. We are so sorry about the ban," said a source from a major publisher that had published several of Yu's titles.