Beijing still censors science fiction content to some extent. While most sci-fi authors are known to self-censor, they have to follow a few explicit guidelines: Since 2013, China has banned time travel narratives citing concerns that it disrespects and distorts Chinese history, according to a report from the Science Fiction Studies academic journal. But The Three Body Problem notably touches on the Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong’s campaign to preserve communism that led to years of chaos in China. Ken Liu, who translated the novel to English, said that criticism of the Cultural Revolution is tolerated because Chinese leaders today largely agree the campaign was a failure. Still, the Chinese version of Liu’s novel places the Cultural Revolution scene in the middle of the first book as opposed to the opening because the “publisher worried that the opening scenes were too politically charged.”