WORLD : U.S. -BOOKS- CHINA

AS trade war and the world simmers, authors find themselves cut off from a huge market.

''Fear : Trump in the White House.'' which Bob Woodward wrote in 2018, is one of hundred's of American books, held up by a Chinese publishing regulators since the trade war intensified last year.

Publishers inside and outside China say the release of American books has come to a virtual standstill, cutting them off from a big market of voracious readers.

''American writers and scholars are very important in every sector,'' said Sophie Lin, an editor at a private publishing company in Beijing.
''It has had a tremendous impact on us and on the industry.'' After new titles failed to gain approval, she said, her company stopped editing and translating about a dozen pending books to cut costs.

The Chinese book world is cautiously optimistic that the partial trade truce reached some months ago will break the logjam, according to book editors and others in the publishing industry who spoke to The New York Times.

Already, they said, some have won approvals after China celebrated its National Day on Oct 1, a politically perilous event that had Chinese officials on edge.

But they also worry that American books could be singled out in future crackdowns. Under Xi. Jinping, China's top leader, the Communist Party has worked to reduce the influence of the foreign media to make room for Chinese books, movies and television shows.

Even before the trade war intensified, Chinese regulators were taking a tougher stance on foreign books.

People in the publishing industry are reluctant to discuss publicly which books have been held up for fear that Beijing will punish them for speaking out. Many spoke on the condition of anonymity.

But a review of lists of books that had been set to be published this year shows a wide variety of best sellers and academics titles alike that have failed to to appear as promised..

Besides Mr. Woodward's book, they include a translation of the 1973 novel ''Child of God,'' by Cormac McCarthy; ''Asymmetry,'' the first noveel by Lisa Halliday; ''Marriage : A History,'' Stephanie Coontz's nonfiction look at humanity's most intimate partnership.

''China and Japan,'' about the turbulent history between the Asian giants by the influential Sinologist Ezra Vogel; and a Chinese version of ''Public Philosophy: Essays on Morality in Politics,'' by the Harvard professor Michael J. Sandel, whose online courses have been a hit with many young people in China.

The reason for the delayed publication of each title are not clear. For example, some people in the publishing industry wondered whether the political content of Mr. Woodward's book, rather than the trade war, stymied its release.

The Communist Party's Central Publicity Department, which manages the book approval process, did not respond to faxed questions.

The honor and serving of the latest operational research on the state-of-the-world, continues. The World Students Society thanks authors Lin Qiqing and Paul Mozur.