Hillary Clinton's memoir, "Hard Choices," is not available in China because Chinese publishers have put an "effective ban" on it, Simon & Schuster executives said.

"There's no formal written explanation for why, except for the obvious reason that, in the past, we've been told that the import agencies don't want to risk the wrath of the Chinese government," Jonathan Karp, Simon & Schuster president, told BuzzFeed this week. "They could be shut down."

According to BuzzFeed, Chinese publishers have not bought translation rights to the book. In addition, the memoir, which depicts Clinton's term as secretary of state, will not be available in English.

According to Simon & Schuster executives, Shanghai Book Traders, which is responsible for Amazon China's book supply, told them that the book would not be approved in China the day after "Hard Choices" hit U.S. bookstores on June 10. The decision was made after screening the book.

"It's outrageous and unfortunate, and it's a pretty clear indication of the low level of intellectual freedom in China right now," Karp said.

"Hard Choices" does take some swipes at China, as Clinton writes that the country is "full of contradictions" and the "epicenter of the antidemocratic movement in Asia."

In addition, "Hard Choices" features a chapter on Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese civil rights activist, and discusses Dai Bingguo, a Chinese diplomat, and making Myanmar democratic among other issues affecting China.

"It really is about a Chinese business fearing the wrath of the Chinese government," Karp said. "No one in China was willing to buy the book blind because the political sensitivities involved in publishing any author who might be critical of China."

Clinton also discusses a 1995 visit to the United Nations Conference on Women held in Beijing. She writes that she felt the "heavy hand of Chinese censorship when the government blocked the broadcast of my speech."

"There has been silence," Karp said. "We have received offers all over the world for this book. We've just sold the Mongolian rights. We've had an offer from Russia. We either have sold the book or are in the process of selling the work to all the major territories. China is the one big exception. The phone isn't ringing for China."

Sixteen other foreign countries have rights to "Hard Choices," and some of them bought it "blind," or without reading the book first.

Other U.S. publishers are surprised by China's reception -- or lack thereof -- of the book.

"I know that individual publishing houses in China were prepared to make offers late last year," Jo Lusby, managing director of Penguin China, said, adding that she thought "Hard Choices" would be a Chinese-language bestseller. "Non-fiction books by major U.S. public figures carry serious price tags in China, and this should have been no different."
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Follow Scharon Harding on Twitter: @ScharHar.

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