According to the report, about two years ago, when Amazon’s Chinese website was promoting Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s speeches and anthologies, Beijing issued an order to stop allowing any readers to rate and comment in China.
Selected Works of Xi Jinping
The “China Books” (China Books) co-founded by Amazon and the state-owned China International Book Trade Corporation (CIBTC) promotes “Xi Jinping on the Governance of the Country” prominently on its website. People familiar with the matter told Reuters that the Chinese government is dissatisfied with readers’ negative comments and cannot tolerate ratings below five stars, and therefore requested that ratings and comments be banned. Although reader ratings and reviews are a key part of Amazon’s online book sales and interaction with customers, the US e-commerce company has obeyed Chinese official instructions. Currently, on Amazon’s China website, the selected works of Xi Jinping published by the Chinese government do not have any customer reviews or ratings, and the comment section has also been closed.
An internal briefing document for Amazon executives seen by Reuters in 2018 listed a series of “core issues” facing the company in doing business in China, including “Ideological control and propaganda are what the Communist Party achieves and maintains its success. The core of the toolkit.” The document said: “We don’t make judgments about what is right or wrong.”
Reuters said that this briefing document and the news agency’s interviews with more than 20 people involved in Amazon’s China business revealed how the company survived and thrived in China by boosting the Chinese Communist Party’s global economic and political agenda, while at the same time , Amazon sometimes responded to some of the requirements of the Chinese government.
Reuters reported that as part of this strategy, internal Amazon documents and interviews with insiders showed that Amazon has established a partnership with a branch of the Chinese propaganda department and established a sales portal “China Bookstore.”
The report said that this project did not make much money, but it was regarded by Amazon as playing a key role in winning support in China.
Amazon has developed the e-book reader Kindle, cloud computing and e-commerce business in China.
China Bookstore
In 2004, Amazon acquired China’s Joyo and began to enter the Chinese market. Amazon later hoped to develop the e-book business and promote the Kindle, which required the support of the then General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP). Most of the functions of this regulatory agency are currently taken over by the National Press and Publication Administration (NPPA), which is under the Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party of China.
Reuters quoted information disclosed by former executives who participated in the negotiations as saying that Amazon’s sales of e-books and Kindles in China only received partial but not all approvals from the Chinese government that year. This situation allowed the Chinese government to control the online retailer. Influence. In this context, the Amazon public team launched the “China Bookstore” project. Amazon boasted to the Chinese authorities that this is Amazon’s only online store named after a country, hoping to use this tacit method to win the support of the Chinese government. Amazon soon cooperated with the General Administration of Press and Publication to establish a “China Bookstore.” The China International Book Trade Corporation participated in this effort, and the Amazon document described the government company as the “executive agency” of the General Administration of Press and Publication.
A photo on the website of the China International Book Trade Corporation shows Chinese officials celebrating the launch of the project at a hotel in Beijing in September 2011.
“China Bookstore” sells many non-political books, including Chinese textbooks, cookbooks, and children’s bedtime stories, but it also sells books promoting the Chinese government’s position and achievements, including the promotion of “Xi Jinping’s Administration of the Country” in a prominent position.
China International Book Trade Corporation told Reuters that the project is “a business relationship between two companies.” The National Press and Publication Administration did not comment.
Amazon responded: “No matter where we do business, we comply with all relevant laws and regulations, and China is no exception.” Amazon also said: “As a bookseller, we believe that it is important to provide channels and diverse perspectives for reading text. This includes books that may be offensive to some people.”
Amazon said that the company sells various books about China, the “China Bookstore” portal is just an additional channel for Chinese readers in the United States and elsewhere, and China International Book Trading Corporation is just the company’s millions of partners around the world. one of the.
Awesome, my country
The company’s internal briefing document also mentioned that in 2018, China’s National Internet Information Office required Amazon to delete the link to the new Chinese film “Awesome, My Country” from the company’s film information and review platform IMDb. The reason was this. The film promoting Xi Jinping’s political achievements was criticized badly. According to the briefing seen by Reuters, the Amazon office replied to the China Cyberspace Administration of China that Amazon’s China branch is difficult to accommodate such requests, and will send the message to the headquarters to ask the headquarters what possible solutions.
“Awesome, My Country” is still at IMDb. The Reuters report said that by looking at the old online records, it can be seen that after the Chinese government requested, some negative comments disappeared, and other negative comments such as “junk” and “government propaganda” remained. In a 10-point scoring system, the current overall rating of this film is only 2.3.
“Some of the comments submitted on the topic of “Awesome, My Country” were deleted because they violated our user comment content guidelines, most of which are off-topic.” Amazon told Reuters. “IMDb is not aware of any requests from foreign parties (including the Chinese government) to take any action on comments on this subject.”
The newly disclosed details of Amazon’s China strategy show the challenges faced by Western companies doing business in China. China has the world’s most populous market, but Western companies must deal with the increasingly strict control of public speech by the Chinese authoritarian government.
Some companies have left the Chinese market. Yahoo recently withdrew from China, and LinkedIn, a subsidiary of Microsoft, announced that it would cancel some services. Both companies mentioned China’s difficult business environment and regulatory requirements. In contrast, Amazon has become a powerful economic force in China in recent years.
(This article is based on a report from Reuters.)
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