amazon is working with the chinese communist party
to do business in china but it's dangerous for the rest of the world
welcome to china uncensored i'm chris chappell this episode is sponsored by brilliant
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alexa to order toothpaste through same-day prime delivery while watching fire tv with your kindle
that amazon might just be taking over the world look i'm not saying amazon founder jeff bezos
is an evil genius bent on world domination but he went from selling books on the internet to
launching a totally normal looking rocket into space plus there's this
he's been practicing that life amazon is now the world's largest internet company it's also
the world's largest online retailer it has the world's biggest cloud computing service
and it's the number one reason workers pee into plastic coke bottles
but of all the shady things amazon has done working with the chinese communist
party might just be the worst because it puts all of us in danger you might have seen some
headlines recently about how amazon silenced criticism of chinese leader xi jinping in order
to do business in china amazon didn't just scrub negative reviews of xi jinping's books they took
out all customer ratings and reviews on amazon china don't even think about leaving a review
and it looks like they did the same to the selected works of mao zedong can't be too
careful of course that only applies to books on amazon's china website on amazon's regular
website xi jinping's governance of china volume 3 has more than 65 star ratings without reviews
oh come on the chinese communist party couldn't pay their wu maos a little more
to write actual reviews of the book too but amazon china disabling reviews of xi jinping's books
just scratches the surface to do business in china amazon has done a lot worse
in fact amazon directly partnered with one of the chinese regime's propaganda arms
let me show you a little section of amazon called china books to be clear this is not on their china
website it's on their regular website what type of china books are featured funny you should ask
but i don't want you to think china books is just books by xi jinping let's check out their
english language book section which starts with xi jinping on the governance of china volume three
xi jinping on the governance of china volume two xi jinping on the governance of china volume one
up and out of poverty by xi jinping xi jinping wit envision xi jinping important
speeches at the belton road forum xi jinping selected speeches at the g20 hong zhou summit
xi jinping important speeches at the brix shamans summit the belt and road initiative by xi jinping
finally a non-xi jinping book the selected works of zhang zamin vol 1
this is the worst book list i've ever seen how did this happen china books is a partnership
that launched in 2011 between amazon and china international book trading corp or
cibtc cibtc is a subsidiary of china international publishing group that's a publishing company
directly owned by the chinese communist party so amazon is helping a company ultimately owned
by the chinese communist party push their propaganda through this china books website
when asked about this by reuters amazon defended itself by claiming that china books is an
additional channel for serving our chinese readers in the united states and elsewhere and that cibtc
is just one of the millions of selling partners around the world offering products in our stores
sure it is but despite their protests amazon knew exactly what they were doing with china books
they were willing to push propaganda for the communist party in exchange for
access to the china market i'll tell you how they did it after the break
welcome back amazon claims its actions in china are just about complying with applicable laws and
regulations and that they're just providing access to diverse perspectives including books which
some people might find objectionable but behind closed doors they were saying something different
reuters got a copy of an internal 2018 amazon briefing document
it was prepared for jay carney the senior vice president of global corporate affairs at amazon
kearney was a press secretary during the obama administration he joined amazon in 2015 and
oversees public relations and public policy for amazon's global businesses gurney was getting
ready to travel to china for amazon 2018. part of the briefing document he was given said this
ideological control and propaganda is the core of the toolkit for the communist party to achieve
and maintain its success and we are not making judgment on whether it is right or wrong
okay so maybe it's not a surprise that a company started by this guy
refused to make a moral judgment about the chinese regime's propaganda and ideological control
but amazon did more than just not judge they found out how they could help china
spread propaganda according to a former amazon executive back in 2011 amazon was having a
hard time getting government approvals to sell the kindle and ebooks in china
and that gave the chinese regime leverage over amazon according to the former executive
now that's something that happens to every foreign company that goes into china but amazon got
creative they came up with an idea the china books project according to the former amazon executive
it was a way to get what amazon wanted on kindle and other things he called it a wink and a nod
so while amazon claims china books was just one of many normal partnerships with
different sellers they actually pitched it to the chinese regime here's how amazon described it
both china books and kindle chinese ebook store are amazon china's main commitment to assist
china in going abroad an umbrella project that aims to promote chinese culture to the world
so amazon admits china books was a way to help the chinese communist party with
their going abroad policy but going abroad also known as going out policy wasn't about
promoting chinese culture the going out policy was about projecting the chinese communist power
to the rest of the world economic power through chinese companies and investments abroad political
power through international organizations and soft power through cultural influence and china books
was part of that soft power there was a ceremony for its launch back in 2011.
in october 2012 china books was awarded the title a key national culture export project by a group
of chinese government bodies that included the communist party's propaganda department and two
months later amazon launched its electronic books business in china and soon began selling kindles
of course the china books project was a financial flop few of the portal's titles have
sold well and amazon even shipped back books because its warehouse lacked space for them
but that's not the important part for the chinese county's party china books was a showpiece for
their going out policy they got a parade around the fact that a huge foreign company like
amazon was working with them for amazon china books was a signal that they would play ball
with the chinese regime it was their way into the china market and by 2017 china had become
the largest global market for the kindle now that's what i call win-win mutual cooperation
so that's why when amazon executive jay carney visited china in 2018
he met with zhang fu hai an official from the communist party-owned publishing company cipg and
he said amazon would make every effort to promote china books and make it bigger and stronger
but while amazon cynically furthering the chinese communist party's propaganda goals might be gross
they're doing something else that's even more disturbing more after the break welcome back
while amazon's kindle sales in china were doing great not all of its businesses were
it's e-commerce business in china couldn't compete with other chinese e-commerce giants like alibaba
and while amazon has recruited lots of chinese sellers on its main amazon.com platform
that's caused its own problems including banned unsafe and mislabeled products
but the biggest danger for amazon in china and for all of us is its cloud computing business
amazon web services or aws aws is now one of the largest providers to chinese companies globally
and that's a big problem amazon started having issues with aws and china in 2016. that's when the
communist party said only chinese companies could be licensed to provide cloud services in china
so amazon did the same thing other foreign companies did they handed off their cloud
computing technology to local chinese companies that way they could still operate aws in china
the chinese companies not amazon were responsible for monitoring and taking down illegal content
collecting and reporting basic information of customers and working with prc authorities
so the chinese companies could do the communist party's dirty work and amazon could keep selling
their cloud services in china great idea and that worked until 2018 when china's ministry
of public security demanded that amazon censor a chinese dissident the ministry of public security
threatened to retaliate against amazon unless it removed content and blocked a website it hosted
in the united states for guoangue guo won guay also known as miles guo is a chinese billionaire
who fled to the u.s and launched a media network that's critical of the chinese regime according
to amazon's internal document amazon refused to censor guo but they did something arguably worse
the company asked quo to take an action that exposed the dissident's ip address
and they gave the ip address to the ministry of public security
wow now whatever you think of guo and way that's not important here it doesn't matter who the
communist party was targeting the point is amazon was willing to give the party a chinese dissidence
ip address especially when guo was in the u.s at the time according to amazon's internal document
jay carney was advised to tell the chinese regime they shouldn't make requests like that for data
stored outside china it's not clear whether kearney brought this up with chinese officials
at all in any case amazon's actions don't seem to have overly upset the communist party
amazon has been allowed to expand their cloud services in china including to major chinese
companies like bike dance which owns tick tock and hick vision which makes surveillance equipment
like i said earlier amazon has the world's largest cloud computing service we all use websites every
day that rely on aws and amazon has shown they're willing to at least partially cave to the chinese
communist party's demands and that's dangerous for all of us outside china too what happens if
the chinese regime demands even more information from amazon in order to keep their business there
china books may not be the worst thing amazon does to sell out to the chinese regime and this episode
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brilliant it's really cool once again i'm chris chapple thanks for watching china uncensored
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