Guess Who Banned Hillary's Memoir?

If you're hanging in Beijing, hoping to curl up with America's latest, best-selling political memoir, you may be waiting a while. The Guardian reports that Hillary Clinton's Hard Choices has been blocked in China, despite Simon & Schuster's best efforts. Shanghai Book Traders, one of China's largest importers, won't be distributing the book. Simon & Schuster's president Jonathan Karp called China’s reaction to the book an “effective ban.” That sounds about right.

The book will not only not be sold in English, but those wanting to read it in Chinese are out of luck, too — according to BuzzFeed, Chinese publishers won't be purchasing Hard Choices 's translation rights, either.

Why the fuss, China? Well, the country's government isn't exactly sugarcoated in the 656-page memoir; at times, Clinton paints the Chinese as oppressive and severe. In the book, Clinton writes that China is the “epicenter of the antidemocratic movement in Asia.”

As disappointing as any censorship news is, this isn't exactly surprising. Two months ago, China banned TV shows including The Big Bang Theory , The Good Wife , NCIS , and The Practice as they tightened their belt on the foreign media allowed in the country. Three weeks ago on the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, China blocked Google — yes, that Google — including services like Gmail, Translate, and Search. China already blocks YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook. We should have seen it coming, I suppose.

Books: they're scary. All that information, jeez.

Image: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images