Joint Publishing (), also known as Sanlian Press or SDX Joint Publishing, is a book store chain and publisher founded at Queen's Road Central in Hong Kong on 18 October 1948. Joint Publishing (Hong Kong) is one of major book store chains in Hong Kong and currently a subsidiary company of Sino United Publishing (Holdings) Limited. The Mainland China branches of the book store chain, such as SDX Joint Publishing and Shanghai Joint Publishing were owned by separate holding company of the Chinese government. Joint Publishing (Hong Kong)'s parent company Sino United Publishing, was owned by Chinese central government agency Hong Kong Liaison Office. History The book store was the result of a merger in 1948 between three leading Shanghai publishers and book stores, Life (), Reading () and New Knowledge (). The newly merged bookstore brought together all the names of its previous entities (), but was often referred to in English as SDX Joint Publishing, taking the first initial of each of the previous names to form an acronym, or simply Sanlian Press or Joint Publishing (). Shortly after it was formed, it moved its headquarters to Beijing in March 1949 and established its Hong Kong-based subsidiary. After the establishment of People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, the bookstore located in Hong Kong was mainly responsible for publishing materials from mainland China, while the main branch in mainland China was nationalized. After the coming of Cultural Revolution in mainland China in 1966, the publishing business in mainland China was seriously damaged and the bookstore in Hong Kong survived by republishing old books. With several re-locations, it finally settled in current premises in Queen Victoria Street in May 1971 and opened a retail store at the ground floor in July 1974. The Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 and was soon replaced with economic reform. In 1978 the book store in Hong Kong decided to publish their own books independently and join with other international publishers. It initially targeted in Chinese culture, literature and art and later concentrated Hong Kong topics and social science. Its direction was proved successful and the book store aggressively opened branches in Hong Kong. Outside Hong Kong, the book store expanded to various cities in mainland China by joint venture, and five stores in North America, specifically in Toronto, Vancouver, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. In January 1988, the Hong Kong-based