LONDON ¨C 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 delivered an edict, according to two people familiar with the incident. The American e-commerce giant must stop allowing any customer ratings and reviews in China.
A negative review of Xi¡¯s book prompted the demand, one of the people said. ¡°I think the issue was anything under five stars,¡± the highest rating in Amazon¡¯s five-point system, said the other person.
Ratings and reviews are a crucial part of Amazon¡¯s e-commerce business, a major way of engaging shoppers. But Amazon complied, the two people said. Currently, on its Chinese site Amazon.cn, the government-published book has no customer reviews or any ratings. And the comments section is disabled.
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