Communist China under Mao Zedong was  based on a philosophy that stressed the importance of ideology and reeducation.Dissent was squashed and most literature banned.Novels were considered bourgeois or anti-revolutionary.

After Mao’s death in 1976,the political and cultural policy was marginally liberalized.Some local publishers,especially those in the provinces,began to publish risque books,such as  pulp romantic novels and soft porn.This lowbrow,popular literature found a substantial market.But there were soon campaigns against spiritual pollution and bourgeois liberalism.In 1987,more than 3,000 people were arrested and millions of books,videos,and magazines were confiscated in a sudden  crackdown.However,China’s leaders found themselves in a difficult position:China needed to open up to the rest of the world for trade purposes,but western leaders demanded some evidence of a Chinese human rights policy.There was growing dissent and movement for change.

APARTHEID IN SOUTH AFRICA

At the turn of the century,South Africa was a British colony.In 1910 it was given independence but remained part of the Commonwealth,ruled by a white minority government,In 1948 the South African government introduced a series of apartheid measures.

The government was afraid that education of the black population would breed troublemakers.In 1953 the education syllabus was changed to limit the learning of black children.Rather than developing their intellects for further education,the government recommended that they be taught practical skills.In black primary schools the reaching of English ceased,and children were taught in Afrikaans or a native language.

In 1960 the African National Congress and the Pan African Congress,two blacks organizations opposed
 to  apartheid,were banned.In 1960s and 1970s,the security police suppressed resistance to the regime.Increasing numbers of people,among them Winni Mandela,wife of ARC leader Nelson Mandela,were placed under house arrest,which meant that they could not leave their homes.Books were banned,and many South African authors published only abroad.In 1973 Steve Biko, a founder of the South African Student’s Organization,which encouraged black self reliance,was served with a banning order severely restricting his movements and freedom of speech.In 1977,at the age of thirty-one,he was beaten to death while in police custody.

Of all the regimes described in this chapter,only that of Communist China remains in power.And even China is changing_ at the end of the twentieth century there are suggestions that a blind eye is being turned toward political dissent in metropolitan centers like Beijing.If twentieth-century history has shown us anything,it is a system that relies on perpetual censorship cannot expect to  survive.