The futility has not gone unnoticed. Because of its political sensitivity, publishing is one of the last industries in China to undergo a restructuring. But the government now says that it wants to eliminate subsidies (which are presumably large, but undisclosed) to the many lossmaking state-owned publishers. Instead it will force them to merge with the private “culture studios” that produce the majority of books with popular appeal. These are much more commercially successful, but technically illegal.