China loses rights to Clinton book

The U.S. publisher of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s memoirs has withdrawn rights for the Chinese translation, citing the Chinese publisher’s unwillingness to restore passages critical of the government.

“They no longer have the right to print or sell the book,” Adam Rothberg, a spokesman for Simon & Schuster, said Tuesday.

Simon & Schuster had learned in September that Yilin Press, a Chinese government-backed publisher, removed references in “Living History” to the 1989 Tiananmen Square democracy protests, and altered Clinton’s comments about human rights activist Harry Wu. The company demanded an immediate reprinting of the complete text. But after three months of negotiations, it canceled the contract.