Chasing China

An astonishing, cautionary tale of how Westerner Mark Kitto built a successful media empire in China, creating and running 3 magazines, only to have the state take his business, and his livelihood, away. I had fought off attacks from jealous rivals and been investigated by every bureau with the slightest connection to publishing, and by many who did not: nine in total. I had paid over 1 million Yuan in fines, and who knows how much more in administration fees to government 'agencies.' I had been accused of being a pimp, a China 'splittist, ' a Falun Gong supporter, a pornographer and a spy. My staff had been extradited, my office computers confiscated, and my magazines impounded at the printers. I had got them all back. I had been through eight government publishing partners before China Intercontinental Press, and half a dozen advertising agencies. Mark Kitto on his experience as a business owner in China