By Steve Stecklow and Jeffrey Dastin

LONDON (Reuters) – Amazon. com Inc was marketing 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 other people familiar with the incident. The giant will have to prevent visitor ratings and reviews from being allowed in China.

A negative review of Xi’s e-book sparked demand, one of the other people said. “I think the challenge has less than five stars,” the highest score of Amazon’s five-point system, the other user said.

Ratings and reviews are a component of Amazon’s e-commerce business, a primary way to have interactive shoppers. But Amazon complied, the other two people said. Currently, on its Chinese online page Amazon. cn, the government-published e-book has no visitor reviews or ratings AND the comment segment is disabled.

Amazon’s compliance with the Chinese government’s edict, which has never been reported before, is a component of the company’s decade-long deepest effort to curry favor with Beijing and expand its business into one of the world’s largest markets.

A 2018 internal Amazon report outlining the company’s activities in China details a number of “fundamental issues” the Seattle-based giant has faced in the country. Among them: “Ideology and propaganda are at the center of the Communist Party’s toolbox. to achieve and maintain its success,” the document states. We don’t judge whether it’s right or wrong. “

This briefing paper and interviews with more than two dozen people who have been concerned about Amazon’s operations in China, reveal how the company survived and thrived in China by helping to advance the ruling Communist Party’s global economic and political agenda, while rejecting some government demands.

In a central detail of this strategy, the internal document and interviews show that Amazon partnered with a branch of the Chinese propaganda apparatus to create a sales portal on the company’s U. S. site. In the U. S. , Amazon. com, a task that is known as China Books. The company, which eventually submitted more than 90,000 posts for sale, did not generate significant revenue, but the document shows that Amazon deemed it very important to win in China as the company expanded its Kindle e-book, cloud computing and e-commerce. enterprises.

The 2018 briefing outlines the strategic bets of China Books’ assignment to Jay Carney, Amazon’s global head of lobbying operations and public policy, before a move to Beijing. “Kindle operates in China in a gray political area,” the document says. , and notes that Amazon is suffering from downloading a license to sell e-books in the country.

“The key detail to protect” against its license with the Chinese government “is the Chinabooks project,” the document says.

The document noted, “The draft of the books Amazon. com/China has gained great popularity among Chinese regulators. “

LIFE IN XINJIANG

The books come with many apolitical titles, such as Chinese textbooks, cookbooks, and bedtime stories for young people, but they also come with headlines that magnify the official Communist Party line.

An eeebook praises life in Xinjiang, where United Nations experts said China had interned a million Uighurs in a network of camps. The eeebook, “Incredible Xinjiang: Stories of Passion and Legacy,” is about an online comedy exhibit set in the region. eeebook quotes an actor who plays a Uighur “fieldmate,” as that ethnicity is “not a problem” there. This echoes the stance of Beijing, which has denied mistreatment of minority groups.

Some books describe China’s war behind 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 the Coronavirus Lockdown. “Another begins with a comment via Xi: ” Our good luck to date has once again demonstrated the strengths of the LEADERSHIP of the CPC (Chinese Communist Party) and Chinese socialism . “

China International Book Trading Corp, or CIBTC, state-owned by Amazon, told Reuters the company is a “business that dates between two companies. “China’s National Press and Publications Administration, or NPPA, the state propaganda arm Amazon has married, had no comment.

In response to questions, Amazon said it “complies with all applicable laws and regulations, wherever we operate, and China is no exception. “He added that “as booksellers, it is vital to provide access to the written word and varied perspectives This includes books that some would possibly find objectionable.

Amazon said it has “a wide variety of books” about China, and China Books “is one more channel to serve our Chinese readers in the United States and elsewhere. “CIBTC is “just one of the millions of trading partners worldwide. who will be offering products in our stores. “

The new main points of Amazon’s strategy in China demonstrate the demanding situations faced by Western corporations to access the world’s most populous market and to deal with an authoritarian regime that is hardening public discourse.

The company’s commitments to Beijing contrast with its efforts to circumvent regulators in the world’s two largest democracies. In India, Reuters this year documented how Amazon circumvented local regulations and, to advertise its own brands, manipulated search effects on its Indian website. , Reuters explained how Amazon got rid of or got rid of state privacy spending designed for consumers.

Amazon said it has complied with Indian law and does not favor its personally branded products in the search for results. As for the U. S. , the company said it prefers U. S. federal privacy law. USA And it protects consumers’ privacy and doesn’t sell their data.

Some corporations have responded to Beijing’s demands by abandoning the market. Yahoo recently left China and Microsoft Corp’s LinkedIn announced it would pull some of its services. Both cited the country’s challenging environment and regulatory requirements.

Amazon, on the other hand, has strong economic strength in China in recent years, providing lucrative export opportunities to thousands of Chinese corporations while creating its own industry-leading cloud facilities unit. Amazon Web Services, or AWS, is now one of the largest suppliers to Chinese corporations in the world, according to a report released this year through analytics firm iResearch in China and others who have worked for AWS.

However, in 2018, Amazon was receiving “an increasing number of requests from (Chinese) watchdogs to remove safe content, most commonly politically sensitive content,” the advisory ready that year for Carney said. U. S. President Joe Biden, when Biden was vice president, and press secretary to President Barack Obama.

Amazon declined to hire Carney for an interview.

According to the white paper, the Cyberspace Administration of China, or CAC, asked Amazon in 2018 to remove a “link to the new Chinese film Amazing China due to harsh user criticism. “The CEC is guilty of online safety and content regulation.

“Amazing China” praises the country’s achievements since Xi took office in 2013. The CAC searched after the link got rid of IMDb, an online news and movie review page owned by Amazon.

Amazon’s China responded to the CAC that “it is complicated for Amazon China to respond to such requests, and we will relay the message to Amazon’s ‘headquarters’ and ask for your perspectives on the possibilities,” the briefing paper said.

The film remains on IMDb’s website in the US. USA Shortly after the request, some negative reviews disappeared, screenshots archived of IMDb. com on archive. org show. Others remain, and “Amazing China” lately has an overall score of 2. 3 out of a maximum score. Some critics call it “pathetic,” “garbage,” or “government propaganda. “

“Some reviews submitted under the name ‘Amazing China’ were removed because they violated our rules for user review content, and most were not related to the topic,” Amazon told Reuters. “IMDb is not aware of any requests from outside parties (including the Chinese government) to do anything related to the denunciation of this name. “

The ACC responded to a request for comment.

“WINK AND WINK”

Amazon entered China in 2004 as part of a $75 million deal to win Joyo. com, a seller of e-books and online media. Finally, Amazon sought to introduce e-books and its popular Kindle reading devices to the Chinese market.

To do this, he worked with the General Administration of Press and Publications, or GAPP, a regulator that exercises state censorship in its role as administrator of publications in China. The NPPA now assumes the fullest responsibilities of GAPP. , is overseen through the Advertising Department of the Communist Party, which in the past was known as the Propaganda Department.

According to a former Amazon executive concerned in talks with China, the company received some, though not all, of the government approvals it needed to sell Kindle devices and e-books. This scenario gave the government an advantage over the retailer, the former executive. Amazon’s public policy team proposed the allocation of China Books as a new way to “get what we look for in Kindle and other things,” the user said. “It’s a wink and a nod. “

Amazon temporarily began working with GAPP to create China Books, according to the white paper. The company planned to provide the portal to the Chinese government as the only Amazon store with a country’s name, according to the document. Amazon engaged several workers in this effort, which referred to CIBTC, the government-owned e-book trading company, which the document described as “GAPP’s executing agency. “

A CIBTC photograph shows Chinese officials toasting the project’s launch at a Beijing hotel in September 2011.

In October 2012, China Books awarded the name “Key National Culture Export Project” through an organization of Chinese government agencies, adding the GAPP, as well as the entity now known as the Advertising Department of the Communist Party of China. Two months later, Amazon introduced its e-book business in China and began promoting Kindles temporarily.

At the end of 2017, China had the largest global Kindle market, “accounting for more than 40% of our global device sales volume,” according to the 2018 track record. online page and 19 translated books.

And Carney, the most sensible public policy official who later briefed Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, visited China in April 2018, where he told an exchange member of the Communist Party Central Committee that Amazon would do “everything possible” to advertise China Books. and make it “bigger and stronger,” according to a CIBTC press release.

The background paper ready for Carney read: “China’s two books and Chinese e-book store Kindle are Amazon China’s main commitment to China with ‘Going Abroad,’ a framework assignment that aims to publicize Chinese culture around the world. “

Amazon China Books’ website prominently features the CIBTC name, but reveals that it’s a task Amazon created in partnership with a Chinese government agency.

“Details about the company can be easily obtained online,” Amazon told Reuters, “and CIBTC has placed its call and logo prominently on its page. Our appointment with CIBTC is entirely appropriate. “

Eventually, China Books’ allocation failed financially, according to a user who participated in it. Few of the portal’s titles sold well, and Amazon even returned the books because its warehouses didn’t have them.

However, China Books’ allocation continues. The Chinese edition of “Xi Jinping: The Governance of China Volume Three” – appears first on China Books’ “BEST SELLER” page. It recently recorded a sales rating of 1,347,071. Another COVID-19 bestseller ranked 10,654,483 Xinjiang shares, which Reuters bought, ranked 13,441,455.

But sales were not the goal, according to the user interested in the project. “It’s a high-level photo shoot,” which is part of a “soft power crusade to essentially publish the books and make them visible. “

In its statement to Reuters, CIBTC, the government’s e-book trading company, said it was not “classifying e-books sold through Amazon. “He did not elaborate.

A THREAT OF “RETALIATION”

Amazon continued its Chinese expansion in 2013 by announcing the arrival in Beijing of Amazon Web Services, its cloud computing business. At the time, there were no Chinese regulating cloud services, the 2018 whitepaper noted.

In 2016, China began taking steps that made it harder for foreign cloud companies, such as AWS, to operate in the country.

The government began requiring cloud providers to have a new license that only Chinese corporations can obtain, according to the briefing paper. “Since then, regulators are very hostile” to AWS, the 2018 paper says.

The result was that Amazon took a step for the company: it transferred its cloud generation to local corporations so that it can also continue to operate in China. Chinese corporations, not Amazon, took it upon themselves to “monitor and remove illegal content, collect and report fundamental visitor information . . . and to paintings with the government of the People’s Republic of China (People’s Republic of China) on all compliance requests that would possibly arise,” the 2018 Document stated.

In its Reuters, Amazon said AWS, as a foreign cloud provider, will have to license or sell the generation to local partners in China to have a presence there.

This structure, however, did not depart from Chinese pressure.

In February 2018, China’s Ministry of Public Security, or MPS, convened AWS for a meeting, according to the white paper. MPS has threatened to “retaliate” against opponents of Amazon unless it contains and blocks a US-hosted online page for Guo Wengui. a Chinese dissident AWS refused, according to the document. But the company asked Guo to take steps that exposed the dissident’s Internet Protocol or Internet Protocol, and AWS “provided MPS” with that data, according to the document.

The ministry “acknowledged our efforts to find a solution, but not . . . to its acceptable level,” the document reads.

The 2018 briefing paper pleaded with Carney to raise the government’s request about Guo in his meeting with a senior Commerce Ministry official in Beijing, and to emphasize that China deserves not to make requests involving knowledge stored abroad.

When asked about the Guo incident, Amazon showed it had won the Chinese government’s request, but said it “provided private data or any other visitor data. “

The Commerce Department said Guo was not discussed about the assembly with Carney. Amazon did not say whether Guo attended.

An MPS worker said the ministry did not respond to requests for comment. A lawyer for Guo said Guo did not comment.

AWS’s business in China continues to grow. Although it has been prevented from promoting the cloud for the government and some state-owned enterprises, AWS has gained key consumers in China, according to others familiar with the matter.

These include two Chinese corporations, Tiktok developer ByteDance and video surveillance company Hikvision, as well as multinationals Nike, Samsung and Philips, according to the 2018 background and a 2019 blog on the AWS website. the other 4 corporations responded to requests for comment.

In June, AWS announced its entry into the country, “to meet the demands of our developing visitor base in China. “

(Reports by Steve Stecklow from London and Jeffrey Dastin from San Francisco. Additional reports from Reuters Shanghai newsroom. Edited via Peter Hirschberg).