Disappearing Research: Academic Censorship in Chinese Universities

• In Event: New Perspectives on Chinese Politics

Abstract

Much of the literature on censorship in China has focused on state censorship of popular
publications, news outlets, and the Internet (MacKinnon 2008; Stockmann and Gallagher 2011;
King, Pan, and Roberts 2013, 2014; Lorentzen 2014). But censorship pervades the Chinese system,
affecting all types of publications from mainstream to academic. Recent scholarship has begun to
investigate academic censorship in China from the point-of-view of foreign scholars, surveying
experiences of repression in the field and perceptions of self-censorship (Greitens and Truex 2018).
However, the experiences of Chinese scholars may give a more complete picture of the state’s
censorship goals. Which research topics are off limits for Chinese scholars? Are certain topics
tolerated, but only when published in English? What are the other manifestations of state censorship
and control from the viewpoint of Chinese students and scholars?
Using focus groups with Chinese scholars studying political science and public affairs abroad, the
authors first describe the censorship experiences and perceptions of students and researchers.
Second, the authors code and analyze the CVs of Chinese scholars with foreign PhDs in these
disciplines employed at top Chinese universities to determine if (and how) their publication records
in English differ from their publications in Chinese. The findings contribute to a broader
understanding of how scholarship produced in China is affected by state censorship.

Authors

• Ning Leng, Georgetown University

• Elizabeth Plantan, Harvard University