Amazon was marketing a collection of Chinese Communist Party President Xi Jinping’s speeches and writings on its Chinese website about two years ago, when Beijing delivered an edict — no reviews less than the highest five stars allowed — Reuters reports, citing “two people familiar with the incident.”
Steve Stecklow and Jeffrey Dastin for Reuters:
A negative review of Xi’s book prompted the demand, one of the people said. “I think the issue was anything under five stars,” the highest rating in Amazon’s five-point system, said the other person.
Ratings and reviews are a crucial part of Amazon’s e-commerce business, a major way of engaging shoppers. But Amazon complied, the two people said. Currently, on its Chinese site Amazon.cn, the government-published book has no customer reviews or any ratings. And the comments section is disabled.
An internal 2018 Amazon briefing document that describes the company’s China business lays out a number of “Core Issues” the Seattle-based giant has faced in the country. Among them: “Ideological control and propaganda is the core of the toolkit for the communist party to achieve and maintain its success,” the document notes. “We are not making judgement on whether it is right or wrong.”
MacDailyNews Take: Well, you should. It’s wrong.
Communism without propaganda is like a dumpster without a lid. Or, to be more precise: Communism without propaganda is like a dumpster full of corpses covered in bullshit without the dumpster.
The 2018 briefing document spells out the strategic stakes of the China Books project for Jay Carney, the global head of Amazon’s lobbying and public-policy operations, ahead of a trip he took to Beijing. “Kindle has been operating in China in a policy grey area,” the document stated, and noted that Amazon was having difficulty obtaining a license to sell e-books in the country.
“The key element to safeguard” against its license problem with the Chinese government “is the Chinabooks project,” the document stated…
Some books portray China’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic, which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan, in heroic terms. One is titled “Stories of Courage and Determination: Wuhan in Coronavirus Lockdown.” Another begins with commentary from Xi: “Our success to date has once again demonstrated the strengths of CPC (the Communist Party of China) leadership and Chinese socialism.”
In response to questions, Amazon said it “complies with all applicable laws and regulations, wherever we operate, and China is no exception.”
The Chinese-language version of “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China Volume Three” – is listed first on China Books’ “BEST SELLER” page.
Vlad Savov for Bloomberg News:
The experience recounted in the report mirrors that of Apple Inc., which has grown increasingly compliant with Beijing in recent years. Apple complied with 97% of requests from the Chinese government for user device information in 2019, up significantly from 65% in 2014.
Other U.S. firms, such as Yahoo! and Microsoft Corp.’s LinkedIn, have, by contrast, exited the Chinese market this year, citing an increasingly challenging business and legal environment in the country.
MacDailyNews Take: Some multinational corporate leaders have backbones. Others do not.
Athletes, so many actors, so many celebrities… are just scared to say a word because they care too much about their endorsement deals, their contract situations, their movies sales, but I feel like everything that they’re trying to get from the Chineses Communist Party is not more important that morals, values, and principles.
We need to be the voice of all of those innocent people out there who don’t have a voice… while we’re speaking [here], the genocide is happening. It’s so important to be the voice of all of those people in concentration camps – almost 2 million people≤ what they’re going through is heartbreaking.
So, I don’t care what you offer me. I don’t care. It is important to stand up for what’s right. — Enes Kanter Freedom
Censorship reflects a society’s lack of confidence in itself. — Potter Stewart
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“How do you tell a communist? Well, it’s someone who reads Marx and Lenin. And how do you tell an anti-Communist? It’s someone who understands Marx and Lenin.”
— Ronald Reagan
They think Tiny Winky is gay…. While looking for Mr. Potato Head’s private parts.
Pathetic comment Grow up.
Yet both are true.
Thank you, MDN, for your Takes. They’re all perfect.
May Apple someday soon get a CEO with balls.
Unfortunately, the leash is in the wrong location.
Obviously, you are dreaming and not paying attention…
It almost sounds like something that would come from a dystopian novel. “1984” was a warning, NOT an instruction manual!
Be not mistaken, the US is rolling steadily towards this political mindset. Though it may sound good, any politician that advocates equity is advocating a major tenant of CCP, or any other state-ist, egalitarian, or authoritarian govt. One such politician rolled out an “appealing” animation that made it look so sweet and kind, but to implement, it requires “all for one–one for all” and, or: “to each according to their need.”
Equity translated…’we all suffer equally’.
And “excellence “ is unfair, racist, bigoted and maybe, mean/ruthless.
Equity is unattainable. It doesn’t even exist in one’s own family let alone a whole society.
All of this plus! From a country that sends Train-loads of their own citizens to a Organ Donor Farm where they remove Organs, give them to their rich citizens to replace their failed organs…and then, of course burn what’s left of the donors!
Some are told, “it’s a vacation…you’ll enjoy the country-side.”