The Internet shopping giant Amazon reportedly cooperated with the Chinese authorities to ban all reviews and ratings of a book by President Xi Jinping.
The propaganda wing of China's government was allegedly unhappy with negative reviews of President Xi's book. "I think the issue was anything under five stars," an anonymous source told Reuters. It demanded that Amazon restrict user feedback on the book as a result.
The book, 'Xi Jinping: Governance of China', is a state-published collection of the Chinese president's speeches and writing.
It sounds like a laugh a minute, and the mind boggles as to why anybody would leave such an exciting book of thoughts a negative review.
However, there are now no customer reviews, comments or ratings of the book available on Amazon's Chinese site, Amazon.cn.
The book listing was reportedly censored around two years ago, while Amazon was engaged in a push to gain a better foothold in China against competitors like Alibaba and JD.com.
Amazon has been approached for comment, and this article will be updated if and when they respond.
User feedback is a critical part of how Amazon works, with reviews and star ratings playing a key role in the placement of products in search results and shop listings.
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A leaked document from 2018 shows Amazon identifying a number of 'Core Issues' it faces in the country, including: "Ideological control and propaganda is the core of the toolkit for the communist party to achieve and maintain its success […] We are not making judgement on whether it is right or wrong."
Western tech giants like Amazon face not only massive restrictions in China but stiff competition, thanks to numerous online retailers which are able to source products directly from manufacturing hubs across the country.
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