China, under President Xi Jinping, asks all companies to either submit to their demands or leave China. Amazon does huge business in China. Apple has also complied with all demands of the Chinese authorities.
The US-based corporate giant Amazon removed all criticism of Chinese President Xi Jinping from all its platforms, a Reuters investigation has revealed.
China published President Xi Jinping’s writings and speeches as “Xi Jinping: The Governence of China”. The authorities in Beijing asked Amazon to remove all reviews which criticised the book. All the ratings which were less than five-star (maximum permissible) were also asked to be pulled down.
Amazon silently complied with the Beijing’s demands.
Chinese authorities don’t allow any company to operate in the country which criticises Xi Jinping or Communist Party even slightly.
Earlier, US-based Apple Inc also complied with all the demands of the Chinese authorities. China, world’s most populous country, is too big to be ignored by these corporate giants.
Amazon “has survived and thrived in China by helping to further the ruling Communist Party's global economic and political agenda”, Reuters noted.
Earlier, Yahoo and Microsoft quit the Chinese market when the demands from the Communist authorities became unbearable.
To placate the authorities in Beijing, Amazon partnered with Chinese propaganda arm to sell Chinese books in the US. The project was called ‘China Books’ by the Amazon. The 2018 internal documents reveal that the project “was seen by Amazon as crucial to winning support in China as the company grew its Kindle electronic-book device, cloud-computing and e-commerce businesses”.
“The key element to safeguard” (against its license problem with the Chinese government) “is the China books project," the document read.
It also added, “Amazon.com/China books project has also gained wide recognition among Chinese regulators.” Chinese authorities don’t tolerate any criticism of Xi Jinping and the Communist Party.
In an exclusive interview to AP, Grace Meng, wife of abducted Interpol Chief Meng Hongwei, had said the Chinese Communist Party is a monster which eats its children.
She added that the level of corruption in China was very serious. Meng Hongwei was a very senior and trusted member of the Chinese Communist Party and was sent to France in 2016 to head the Interpol.
The last time Grace heard from her husband was on September 25 in 2018 when Meng was on an official visit to China. The disappearance of Meng Hongwei was no exception. Earlier, many business leaders, film personalities, sports stars and even dissenting Communist Party members have disappeared.
The most visible face of Chinese business, Jack Ma, disappeared after he criticised the Chinese regulatory authorities. Chinese Tennis star Peng Shuai disappeared from public view after she accused former Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli of sexual harassment in a social media post on November 2.
In response, the WTA announced on December 2 that it had cancelled all WTA tournaments in China over safety concerns about tennis star Peng Shuai.
The Apple Inc, which manufactures and sells iPhones, had moved to the US Supreme Court to safeguard the interests of its customers but in China, it silently complied with the demands of the Chinese authorities.
