Amazon Partnered With China Propaganda Arm

Amazon was selling a collection of President Xi Jinping's speeches and writings on its Chinese website about two years ago when Beijing issued an edict, according to two people familiar with the case. The American e-commerce titan must stop enabling customer ratings and reviews in China.

A terrible review of Xi's book, according to one of the people, spurred the demand. The second person remarked, "I believe the issue was anything beneath five stars," alluding to Amazon's five-star rating system.

As a technique of engaging consumers, Amazon's e-commerce business mainly depends on ratings and reviews. According to the two people, Amazon, on the other side, cooperated. Consumer evaluations and ratings for the government-published book are presently unavailable on Amazon.cn in China. Furthermore, the comments section has been disabled.
Amazon's compliance with the Chinese government's regulation, which was previously unknown, is part of a bigger, decade-long effort by the company to garner favor in Beijing in order to protect and grow its business in one of the world's most important markets.

Amazon's China activities are detailed in an internal briefing document from 2018, which cites a number of "Core Issues" the Seattle-based corporation has faced in the country. The leaflet claims that "ideological management and propaganda are at the core of the communist party's toolkit for gaining and preserving victory." "We haven't decided whether it's accurate or wrong."