Writers protest China’s largest publishing company owned by Tencent

China Literature owns China’s largest online reading platforms, but writers are complaining about losing rights

The China Literature writers’ strike drew a lot of attention on local microblogging platform Weibo. (Picture: Bloomberg)

Writers on China’s largest online publishing platforms stopped updating their stories on Tuesday in a protest against Tencent-owned China Literature. Writers referred to the one-day strike as “May-5-No-Updating-Day,” which was organized in opposition to contract clauses that writers claim diminish author rights.

The biggest complaint among those shared on social media is that China Literature’s contracts force authors to hand over copyrights to their work, local media reported. In a statement published Sunday, the company denied many of the authors’ claims, but it admitted that it “made mistakes and detours.” The China Literature Group recently went through a management reshuffle with CEO Wu Wenhui being replaced by Cheng Wu. The company also said that a meeting will be held with writers on Wednesday. Abacus reached out to the company for comment and will update if we receive a response.
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