https://www.yog-sothoth.com/index.html/news/chinese-government-burns-call-of-cthulhu-supplement/
For many years, various publishers in the Americas and Europe have had their books printed in China as a cost-saving measure (including many in the RPG field). Often the primary downside of this has simply been the time taken for the books to arrive, but it appears there can also be another problem, as the publishers of The Sassoon Files (a Cthulhu-based RPG supplement) have announced that all print copies of their book have been destroyed by the Chinese Government – for unspecified reasons.
https://boingboing.net/2019/03/25/the-sassoon-files.html
Julio writes, "Sons of the Singularity is a small RPG publisher. Last year, they kickstarted The Sassoon Files, a sourcebook for the popular Call of Cthulhu RPG and Trail of Cthulhu RPG. As a lot of publishers, theydid[sic] the printing in China. The same day that the print was finished, a Chinese Government decided that it was "problematic", so they burned the entire print run. Targeting foreign publications is a first, specially when it seems there wasn't anything problematic (the supplement was based on Shanghai but was respetful and documented carefully).
https://sonsofthesingularity.com/setback-in-the-sassoon-files-banned-by-the-ccp/
We have suffered an unfortunate and unexpected setback with the off-set print run. On March 20th, the Chinese government ordered the destruction of our books. Although the printer returned our deposit, we need to find another printer and this will result in a delay in fulfillment. We are committed to completing the print run and fulfillment.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by etherscythe on Tuesday March 26 2019, @06:14PM (4 children)
Burning just seems like such a waste. Seriously, destroy it and give back the deposit - fine. But burning? That's a symbolic action. They should probably announce what their beef with it was, otherwise the conspiracy theories are going to scare off their business.
Plus, they have enough air quality issues already. I hope they at least fueled a coal power plant.
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:22PM
That's probably [wikipedia.org] the point. [wikipedia.org]
How many people are going to think, "I have this cool idea for a ____," but then get worried that China won't print it. Of those, how many are going to take the time, effort, and money to find a different (and more expensive) printing location?
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Tuesday March 26 2019, @07:27PM (1 child)
A political statement with accompanying news coverage for the cost of some printed material that a third party has already paid for? Sounds like a bargain to me.
(Score: 2) by etherscythe on Wednesday March 27 2019, @03:52PM
They refunded the deposit. Cost was paid by either the printer or the Chinese government, ultimately.
"Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 26 2019, @09:05PM
Or they realize what happens to anything produced that doesn't pass QA / isn't supposed to be sold. (It gets sold out the back door ...)