According to a special report from Reuters, Amazon has been bending the knee to the Chinese government for the last decade, going so far as deleting negative reviews of the collection of President Xi’s speeches and writings to please their Communist paymasters.
The Chinese call it “kowtowing” — to “kneel and touch the ground with the forehead in worship or submission as part of Chinese custom.” Whatever you call it, it’s anti-American and sickening.
Amazon will shrug and say it’s the price of doing business in China. And it must be worth it to Jeff Bezos, the founder and a major Amazon shareholder. But there’s something nauseating about seeing an American company toss aside our freedoms so cavalierly.
The government edict was delivered two years ago, according to the Reuters report citing two people familiar with the matter, but had never before been disclosed.
Now, on Amazon sites accessed within China, there are no reviews or star ratings for the book.
The censorship demand was made after some reviewers gave the leader’s tome less-than-stellar marks, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
It was a negative review that prompted the wholesale ban on reviews and ratings on the book, according to a source. The ban was for the book’s Amazon listing in China.
“I think the issue was anything under five stars,” one of the sources told Reuters.
But Amazon insists that they are doing nothing more than complying with the rules set down by the host country. The Reuters report quotes Amazon as saying that their propaganda partner in China, CIBC, is just one of millions of partners around the world selling products on their website.
In response to questions, Amazon said it “complies with all applicable laws and regulations, wherever we operate, and China is no exception.” It added that “as a bookseller, we believe that providing access to the written word and diverse perspectives is important. That includes books that some may find objectionable.”
Amazon said it has “a wide selection of books” on China, and the China Books portal “is an additional channel for serving our Chinese readers in the United States and elsewhere.” CIBTC is “just one of the millions of selling partners around the world offering products in our stores.”
Amazon knows exactly what it’s doing as far as kowtowing to the Communist Chinese government, but has chosen the side of oppression and censorship. “Ideological control and propaganda is the core of the toolkit for the communist party to achieve and maintain its success,” one internal Amazon document notes. “We are not making a judgment on whether it is right or wrong.”
Perhaps they should.
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