3. Promulgate principles and policies on the trade of publications. Publications exchanges with the outside world were a job of high political and policy awareness. It had to communicate publications through the mode of trade and, meanwhile, put the communication under stipulations of state laws and regulations and serve the interests of the central tasks of the nation. Therefore, it was necessary to establish and amend the principles and policies on publications exchanges with foreign countries in accordance with actual situations in all historic stages. Publications were imported according to certain rules. Importing foreign publications was an important means and channel for us to learn from foreign advanced science and culture, and understand the status of foreign politics, economy and culture. Due to differences in social systems, ideologies and cultural backgrounds, many foreign publications proved inappropriate to China’s conditions. Indiscriminate import would not contribute to national construction. It might even leave passive or destructive impacts. In the early years after the founding of New China in particular, the people’s regime was just established. Hostile forces home and abroad remained rampant. Publications might be used by the foes as propaganda tools against the new republic and overthrowing the people’s regime. As a result, it was exceptionally crucial to establish principles guiding import of publications.

In May 1951, the General Administration of Press and General Administration of Publications jointly promulgated a draft Interim Measure on Controlling Import of Foreign Publications. The measure stipulated that the import of foreign publications was exclusively handed to the state-owned International Bookstore. Printed matters carried with passengers to enter China would be checked by the customs, assisted by the public security organs. Publications taken by foreign embassies and consulates in China and their diplomats were handled according to diplomatic general practice. Prohibited publications would be confiscated by local customs and postal offices.

In December 1951, the State Council approved the Interim Measures on Import of Foreign Printed Matters. It stipulated that the import of foreign printed matters would be managed by the International Bookstore and its appointed agencies, provided they were matters for trade. Printed matters published in the Chinese language in Hong Kong and Macao should be imported via Guangzhou with approval of the press and publications administration of the Guangzhou Municipal Government. In March 1955, the State Council amended the interim measures, requiring that approval of higher authority was needed to order and purchase printed matters from capitalist countries, compared with the previous rule covering ordering and purchasing printed matters from all foreign countries.

It was a sensitive issue to import publications from capitalist countries. In 1950, related authorities made regulations on banning the import of reactionary propaganda books and periodicals from imperialist countries. In 1956, in response to the call of the central government to march towards modern science and technology, China imported growingly more books and periodicals on science and technology from capitalist countries. Statistics show that the book orders held by the International Bookstore in the first half of 1956 were 236 percent of those in the same period of the previous year. The orders for periodicals surged by 60 percent, and orders for overdue journals were 10 times those of the previous year. It subsequently caused severe stockpiles. In May 1957, the Ministry of Culture submitted a report to the State Council on the import of books and periodicals from capitalist countries in 1957. The report said that over the past few years, China’s import of books and periodicals from capitalist countries kept soaring. China paid a lot of foreign exchanges for this purpose. In 1956, in response to the slogan of marching towards science, many units ordered far greater amounts of books and periodicals from capitalist countries. There were too many repetitions, with quite a lot eligible cancelled. The units ordering the books were scattered in all sectors. There were no division of labor and no priorities. Therefore, China needed to strictly control orders to ensure the demands for scientific research. In June 1957, the State Council approved and circulated the report.

In 1960, to settle the problems of inadequate examination in importing and distributing foreign books and publicly exhibiting books fit only for internal references, the Foreign Cultural Exchanges Committee and Ministry of Culture put forward that in the future, China would only take the initiative to importing and publicly distributing Marxism-Leninism classic works, publications of communist parties in other countries, classic literary works, progressive literary works, language tools, and scientific and technological books.

New China did not elaborate on what books and periodicals to import from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries in the early years after its establishment. Since China implemented the “one-sided” foreign policy in this period, a large amount of books and periodicals were imported from the Soviet Union and other socialist countries. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of the Soviet Union had greater disparities and made the disparities public. China adopted a countermeasure to control the amount and scope of publications imported from the Soviet Union and seven other countries. It also changed the mode of distribution. In the perspective of exporting publications, the General Administration of Press, General Administration of Publications, and Ministry of Culture stipulated rules in succession.

As regards exporting newspapers and periodicals, the General Administration of Press required in October 1951 that the People’s Daily, Worker’s Daily, China Youth Daily and Guangming Daily, published in Beijing, might be sold abroad. The newspaper offices could take actions to promote the sales of their newspapers. Newspapers of major administrative regions were allowed to sell beyond their boundaries. They were largely sold in neighboring regions. It was unnecessary to take the initiative to promote the sales. Provincial-level newspapers were principally to serve the local readers. Newspapers under the province level were banned to sell beyond their jurisdiction.

In 1957, the Ministry of Culture made regulations on distributing newspapers and periodicals to foreign countries. It regulated that periodicals published publicly in the country were largely allowed for export. Publishers might take the initiative to distributing foreign language periodicals, and academic and literary periodicals of high quality, favored abroad, or boasting big readership. Periodicals of low quality or published locally, and periodicals on religions, would not be promoted to sell abroad. As for newspapers, the newspapers publicly published at the central governmental level and directly affiliated municipality level could be distributed to foreign countries. Newspapers publicly published at and under the province and autonomous region level could be supplied to the Soviet Union and other socialist countries, but not to capitalist countries.