Major League Baseball had extended and expanded its contract with a Chinese telecommunications giant shortly before boycotting the state of Georgia over the league’s disagreement with the election reforms recently enacted by the Peach State’s democratically elected governor and legislature. Chinese state media reported on April 1 that the MLB will continue to be aired on the streaming platform operated by Chinese tech giant Tencent, which has significant ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Tencent is of the Chinese companies that had temporarily dropped NBA games as a form of censorship after former Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey spoke out in support of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. On April 2, the day after the announcement of the Chinese deal, the MLB moved its annual All-Star game out of Atlanta, Georgia, in response to a set of election reforms signed by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp last month. MLB …

The ALA defines a “challenge” as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.”

NEW YORK — The closing of physical libraries because of the pandemic has slowed but not stopped patrons and others from calling for books to be banned or restricted.

On Monday, the American Library Association reported more than 270 challenges to books in 2020, from Toni Morrison’s “The Bluest Eye” to Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird,” compared to 377 the year before. The number of challenges is likely far higher than reported; the association estimates that only a small percentage are formally registered or publicized — a trend that got worse during the pandemic.

“The shutdowns didn’t just make it less likely that patrons would complain, but because of all the furloughs and layoffs at schools and libraries, it disrupted the whole infrastructure that enables us to be aware of complaints,” says Deborah Caldwell-Stone, who directs the association’s Office for Intellectual Freedom.

Alex Gino’s “George” was the most frequently criticized book, with objections including LGBTQ content and “not reflecting the values” of the community. The No. 2 book for complaints was Ibram X. Kendi’s and Jason Reynolds’ “Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You,” challenged in part for “selective storytelling incidents” that do not reflect racism against all people.

A second book co-written by Reynolds, “All American Boys,” faced complaints about political bias, bias against men, and the inclusion of rape and profane language. Others in the top 10 include Angie Thomas’ bestseller about police violence, “The Hate U Give”; John Steinbeck’s “Of Mice and Men”; and the National Book Award winners “Speak,” by Laurie Halse Anderson, and “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian,” by Sherman Alexie.

Several of the top 10 books — which also included “Something Happened in Our Town: A Child’s Story About Racial Injustice,” by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins and Ann Hazzard — received greater attention last year after the death of George Floyd and the Black Lives Matters protests.

“We did see pushback against anti-racist materials, some of which were seen as anti-police,” Caldwell-Stone says. “I always say that the challenged book list reflects the conversations going on around the country.”

The ALA defines a “challenge” as a “formal, written complaint filed with a library or school requesting that materials be removed because of content or appropriateness.” The list, based on media reports and on accounts submitted from libraries, is part of the association’s annual State of America’s Libraries report. It comes out during National Library Week, which ends Saturday.

Some books were simply criticized, others actually pulled. In Burbank, California, last November, “To Kill a Mockingbird” and “Of Mice and Men” were among several novels removed from school reading lists because of racist language that educators allege led to harassment of minority students. The National Coalition Against Censorship condemned the decision, saying that “banning books does not erase racist ideas or prevent racist incidents.”

by Chuck Ross

A Hong Kong-based think tank suspected of working as a front group for the Chinese Communist Party has cultivated close ties to Historically Black Colleges and Universities and members of the Congressional Black Caucus since 2014.

The China-U.S. Exchange Foundation’s (CUSEF) outreach to the black community is part of a broad initiative to cozy up to prominent organizations in the U.S., including foreign policy think tanks and other elite universities.

CUSEF’s activities have drawn the attention of CIA Director William Burns, who testified at his Senate confirmation hearing last month that he cut ties with CUSEF when he was president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace out of concern over “Chinese influence operations.”

Most of CUSEF’s contacts with HBCUs and Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) members have been arranged by Wilson Global Communications, a Washington, D.C.-based communications firm.

Since 2018, Wilson Global Communications has disclosed its activities for CUSEF to the Justice Department under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA), a law that regulates foreign lobbying activity.

According to Wilson Global’s most recent FARA filing, submitted March 22, CUSEF paid the firm $89,844 over the past six months to hold virtual meetings with the leaders of HBCUs and college students. She also had contact with Yu Jiang, a professor at Xavier University who operates the school’s Confucius Institute, which U.S. officials also consider to be an influence agent of the Chinese government.

CUSEF has paid Wilson Global $667,641 since January 2017, according to FARA filings.

In its FARA disclosures, Wilson Global says it provides CUSEF with “communications and public relations services, which included outreach to U.S. elected officials.”

The firm coordinates trips for college students and leaders of HBCUs to China, all funded by CUSEF. Wilson Global has also arranged contact between CUSEF and members of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Julia Wilson, the owner of Wilson Global, has held meetings with CBC members Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee, Jim Clyburn, Donald Payne, and others, according to Wilson Global’s FARA filings.

On July 12, 2019, Wilson Global hosted a virtual event for Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson and CUSEF advisor Alan Wong held at Clark Atlanta University, an HBCU.

ormer U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday suggested that United States athletes should boycott next year’s Olympian competitions in China, calling them “Genocide Olympics” in reference to China’s alleged humanitarian crises while noting Major League Baseball’s recent move from Georgia over a comparably tame voting law.

China has received sustained criticism from both the Trump and Biden administrations in large part due to the country’s mass imprisonment of its ethnic Uyghur population. Critics have argued that Beijing’s policy of alleged brainwashing and forced assimilation of Uyghurs amounts to an effective genocide against that demographic

The violent assault on the Hong Kong Epoch Times printing plant was “appalling, but not unexpected,” Pompeo said.

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