In the West, school textbooks are carefully selected according to educational guidelines. In China, on the contrary, some education officials have decided to collude with book publishers for their own personal profit.
On Dec. 18, Wu Guoyou, an official in the education department in southern China’s Guangxi Province in charge of reviewing and selecting education materials for local elementary and middle schools, was sentenced to two years imprisonment for accepting a bribe of 1.64 million yuan (about US$248,246) from Mr. Wang, the head of a local publisher. In return, Wu selected books by the publisher that were on the central authorities’ approved list for elementary school and middle schools in Guangxi.
