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Recently there has been a heated debate in academic circles about censorship in China and the problems that foreign scholars face when trying to publish in the country. I am not going to go into the details of cases like Cambridge University Press or Springer Nature here; suffice to say that they were (or still are) willing to commit to self-censorship in order to gain access to the Chinese market. Apart from that, Chinese campuses of European or American Universities are also facing increasing pressure and interference from officials as well as alleged 'non-governmental' groups. Whoever needs more examples may simply refer to the 'China section' of the 'Annual Report of the Network of Concerned Historians 2017'.In essence, this is not a brand-new phenomenon; censorship has always existed under Communist rule, but there have been certain periods when it was enforced less strictly. The last years of Jiang Zemin's rule, for example, or most parts of Hu Jintao's, witnessed some degree of lenience towards dissidents, authors and artists. Certainly, some individuals were arrested and put in prison during those years, so one of course cannot claim that there has ever been an overall trend towards 'liberalization' in Chinese society. Perhaps we can say that for some years the Chinese government drove a zigzag course when it came to censorship. Maybe they did not even want to draw a clear line between the allowed and the forbidden, thereby leaving the task of censorship to the intellectuals themselves – always keeping them aware of the potential dangers that they might face once they had crossed the invisible line.

Wang Dan 王丹, geboren 1969 in Beijing, war eine der bekanntesten Führungsper­sönlichkeiten der Proteste auf dem Tian'anmen-Platz 1989, die eine weitgehende politische Liberalisierung und Demokratisierung forderten. Nach der blutigen Niederschlagung der Demonstrationen musste Wang untertauchen, stellte sich den Behörden aber nach etwa einem Monat. Er wurde zu vier Jahren Haft verurteilt. Nach seiner Freilassung blieb er politisch aktiv und wurde daher 1995 ein weiteres Mal verhaftet. Im Jahr darauf entschieden die Richter, Wang für ganze elf Jahre im Gefängnis verschwinden zu lassen – aber schon im April 1998 erlaubte die chinesi­sche Regierung ihm, für eine "medizinische Behandlung" in die USA auszureisen. Dort nahm Wang ein Studium in Harvard auf und schloss es 2008 mit einer Promo­tion in Geschichtswissenschaft und Ostasiatischen Sprachen ab. Ab 2009 hielt er sich in Taiwan auf, wo er an verschiedenen Universitäten lehrte. Sowohl in den USA als auch in Taiwan blieb er durchweg politisch aktiv und warb für eine grund­le­gende politische Reform seines Heimatlandes. 2017 entschloss er sich, Taiwan wie­der zu verlassen und in die USA zurückzukehren (China verweigert ihm bis heute die Einreise). Die Gründe dafür legte er nicht nur in dem hier übersetzten Artikel dar, sondern auch auf einer Pressekonferenz, die wohl nicht zufällig am 4. Juni stattfand. 2018 gründete er in Washington die Denkfabrik Dialogue China 對話中國, die möglichst viele Personen aus aller Welt, die an einer politischen Libe­ra­lisierung Chinas interessiert sind, zusammenbringen möchte, um einschlägige Konzepte und Wege zu diskutieren.

The Sino-Vietnamese War could have escalated into a wider confrontation involving the Soviet Union. Public communications played an important role in keeping the conflict limited. By focusing on transcripts of Soviet domestic radio produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation's Monitoring Service (BBCM), this article makes a contribution to our understanding of state-controlled broadcasting during the crisis. It also adds to our knowledge of Soviet radio in the late Cold War, arguing that it was comprehensive, varied and timely in communicating news about the war and that Soviet radio had achieved considerable sophistication in framing its message by the end of the 1970s. The article also discusses how the vast collection of BBCM radio transcripts, which consists of 'raw' transcripts that were not necessarily fed into the British and US government departments, allows us to assess the role broadcasting played in Soviet political messaging.

Studies in the wake of the "cultural turn" in diplomatic history have shown that propaganda and public diplomacy were key aspects of Western Cold War strategy. This article expands recent literature by focusing on propaganda practices at the grassroots level, making use of West and East German archival records to trace information campaigns in relation to the Vietnam War. In addition to explaining the organization of East German propaganda campaigns, the article explores the methods used by the psychological warfare section of West Germany's Ministry of Defense. This section maintained an unofficial network that helped publish "camouflaged propaganda" at home as well as in France and Great Britain. Germany's Nazi past was an important aspect of East Germany's campaign that accused West Germany of having deployed a "Vietnam Legion." Interestingly, Germany's Nazi legacy also cast a shadow over the methods West German psychological warfare experts relied on to counter East German accusations.

Studies in the wake of the 'cultural turn' in diplomatic history have shown that propaganda and public diplomacy were key aspects of Western Cold War strategy. This article expands recent literature by focusing on propaganda practices at the grassroots level, making use of West and East German archival records to trace information campaigns in relation to the Vietnam War. In addition to explaining the organization of East German propaganda campaigns, the article explores the methods used by the psychological warfare section of West Germany's Ministry of Defense. This section maintained an unofficial network that helped publish 'camouflaged propaganda' at home as well as in France and Great Britain. Germany's Nazi past was an important aspect of East Germany's campaign that accused West Germany of having deployed a 'Vietnam Legion.' Interestingly, Germany's Nazi legacy also cast a shadow over the methods West German psychological warfare experts relied on to counter East German accusations. Adapted from the source document.