Remade in China

This is because US-based writers,who insist on free speech at home,are showing their willingness to bend in order to reach the huge Chinese market. Not only are they open to having blocks of text gouged out of their work,they are willing to have people,places and things or characters,locations and events altered according to the partys current anxieties. Everyone who wants to get into China has to be a little flexible. Even Google compromised its Dont be evil motto when it started a mainland Chinese domain in 2005. It held on,despite widespread criticism,until 2010 when,following Chinese cyber-attacks on US firms including itself,the company relocated to Hong Kong in a self-righteous huff.

But actually,this is the new,improved,progressive China. In Maos time,it was not unusual for officials and important citizens to be physically censored out of sight if they turned difficult. If they had been photographed with the Chairman,visual history was censored,too. In the grim days before Photoshop,they were physically airbrushed out of official pictures. In comparison with such full and final disappearances,the Great Firewall appears to be a minor inconvenience.