Tiananmen square protests

The brutal killings of peaceful protesters during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and the unwarranted arrests of Falun Gong members in 1999 both committed by the Chinese government during those respective times were included in Beijing and Freedom of Assembly articles of the English-language version of the World Book (Whelan). Summary of the article Unveiled last May 16 at Beijing’s Shangri-La Hotel, the Chinese version of the World book did not include several points in history that placed the People’s Republic of China in a bad light. These events included the 1989 Tiananmen massacre and the 1999 arrests of Falun Gong members.

In addition to these omissions, the World book also boldly declared Taiwan as a part of the People’s Republic of China. These changes were contrary to the English-language version of the World book, which acknowledged both the brutal killings of peaceful protesters during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 and the unwarranted arrests of Falun Gong members in 1999 as acts committed by the Chinese government during those respective times. Furthermore, the English-language version also acknowledged Taiwan as a sovereign state with Taipei as its independent capital (Whelan).

World Book President Paul Gazzolo revealed that China had the right to make the revisions as based on the World Book’s contract with the PRC’s Hainan Publishing in 1997. Mr. Gazzolo further clarified that such revisions were not unheard of in the past, as changes were also made in the release of the World Book in other countries such as India which preferred changes made regarding articles about its disputed Kashmir region. At the moment, the Chinese version is only available in China with some unverified reports of access over the internet (Whelan).