China Bans Guns N' Roses' Chinese Democracy

While North America got its second of rockn'roll history yesterday with the departure of Gun N Roses long-promised Chinese Democracy, it appears the same cannot be said of China. According to several media reports, the bands new album has been prohibited by Chinese government because the LP "turns its spear point on Taiwan and uses the "D word in the album title, consequently leaving many Chinese GNR fans out in the cold.

The Rampart Street Journal reports that Chinas government-owned music importer, China National Publications Import and Export Group, told Chinese distributors not to bother ordering the GN'R album because shops will not be allowed to carry it. Anything with "democracy" in the key is "not going to work," the paper quotes an official from the constitution as saying. Also, officials have reportedly blocked a bit of Guns N Roses websites, and still the albums official site, www.chinesedemocracy.com, in attempts to block fans from accessing information about the release.The Ministry of Culture, which oversees China National Publications Import and Export Group, forbids music imports that transgress any of its ten criteria, such as music that promotes "evil sects or damages social morality. And according to the World Times, this is just what Chinese Democracy is guilty of. The official tabloid of Chinas Communist party said that the GNR album is part of a larger Western conspiracy to "hold and see the universe using democracy as a pawn, leading the newspaper to claim its story "American band releases album venomously attacking China and write that the LP "turns its spear point on China.While the bands 46-year-old Axl Rose has rarely discussed the thinking behind the Chinese Democracy title, the Rampart Street Journal points us to a 1999 TV appearance where the singer said: "Well, there's a lot of Chinese democracy movements, and it's something that there's a lot of talking about, and it's something that will be gracious to see. It could also just be alike an ironic statement. I don't know, I hardly wish the voice of it.In a recent Daily Telegraph article, Chinas Ministry of Culture denied there was any ban on Chinese Democracy in China, with a official saying that it was "the start time we've heard about it, adding: "[It] might simply be a rumour."