China’s censorship is ubiquitous, and both academic freedom and creative freedom are inevitable targets. The Taiwan Scholar Journal Database, represented by Airiti Incorporation, has countless master theses and doctoral dissertations censored, twisted, or even deleted in China. The online game “Devotion” once had a chance to be revived, but its relaunch was canceled after massive complaints from Chinese netizens were sent to the gaming platform. These recent examples show that “Red Censorship” is not only political censorship, but a complete insult to academic freedom and creative freedom.

According to a recent report by the Apple Daily, at least 160 thousand master theses and doctoral dissertations on Taiwan Scholar Journal Database have been censored in China. All articles with words such as “my country” and “country” are changed into Taiwan without the consent of the author. Airiti said that they publish all theses and dissertations in their original texts, and China only had a “different expression on the interpretation of the data” but did not “alter the body of the writing.”

However, the statement by Airiti was refuted immediately by Fan Yun, a scholar who is now a legislator of the Democratic Progressive Party. She gave some examples of these theses, in which the discussion about “nationalism” was changed into “Taiwanism” and “four countries” was changed into “four Taiwan’s,” with the original meaning lost to readers. Two of her papers on the identity and democracy of Taiwan were also “forced into disappearance.” In addition, numerous scholars came to the realization one after another that their papers were not only “extradited to China,” but also “forced into disappearance.”

In other words, China’s “Red Censorship” is not only the deletion or distortion of terms, but also the direct removal of sensitive issues. But the core spirit of academic freedom is its service to research. Any paper done by researchers with academic integrity should suffer the fate of “forced disappearance.” The Beijing regime has long used “the Great Firewall” to block all kinds of keywords, and now it has escalated into the censorship of academic paper. This is the greatest infringement of and insult to academic freedom. All academic institutions in Taiwan should reject such political censorship.

Speaking of suspension, Taiwanese people should still remember the incident when the Taiwanese game “Devotion” was pulled off from gaming platforms. This game developed by Red Candle Games was very popular when it was published last February. However, Chinese netizens boycotted the game after they pointed out that the spell in the game was “Xi Jinping Winnie the Pooh” written in seal script, involving “insulting the leader of the country.” Later the Chinese agent announced its suspension of cooperation, and Red Candle Games also pulled off the game on the grounds of quality assessment.

After operating in low profile for a year, the Red Candle Games recently announced on Dec. 18 that they would relaunch Devotion on the gaming platform GOG based in Poland. However, GOG immediately received massive complaints from Chinese netizens and had to announce the cancellation of its relaunch. This incident once again shows that the censorship by the Chinese netizens is even more aggressive and violent than the official one. They are easily mobilized to “wage wars,” trampling on creative freedom under the flag of nationalism.

However, no matter whether it’s academic papers or games that are removed, the government should take actions more than just condemning “Red Censorship.”

Regarding the removal of papers, the Ministry of Education recently stated that it would draft principles of handling and formalized contract templates to scholars and students of various academic organizations to avoid the authorization of their papers are dwarfed or misused. To be honest, not only should this matter have been done a long time ago, but the government should also blacklist the companies that cooperate with the improper censorship from the other side of the Strait so that they could safeguard Taiwan’s integrity as a sovereign and independent country with concrete actions.

As for the suspension of games, on the surface, it appears to be a commercial decision in a free market of competition. However, the market in Taiwan is too small. If an industry wants to break from its independence on the Chinese market and go international, it usually requires intervention and policy support from relevant government agencies. The pride of South Korea, the “Korean Wave” of film and television works, video games, and e-sport industries, have successfully gone international with policy support and resource from the government. The Taiwanese government could of course help relevant industries break their deadlock.

In short, if you want to fight against “Red Censorship,” everyone should be more vigilant and self-reliant. After condemning the top leaders of the Chinese Communist Party of self-deception, the Taiwanese government still has a lot they could and should do well.

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