- The American tech companies have crumbled under the pressure from the Chinese Communist Party.
- Apple, the American electronics and software giant, agreed to remove the Quran and Bible from the app store.
- The app developers, based in Pakistan and the United States are now waiting for updated regulations from CCP.
The American tech companies, which take a holier than thou approach in other parts of the world, crumble under the pressure from the Chinese Communist Party and follow the party’s whims and fancies without any resistance.
Apple, the American electronics and software giant, agreed to remove the Quran and Bible from the app store. These apps were available on Amazon’s audiobook service, Audible, and the Chinese Communist Party ordered its removal, which Apple and Amazon – the two mighty American tech companies that are known for political correctness – followed without argument.
A spokesperson for China’s embassy in the U.S. declined to speak about specific app removals but said the Chinese government has “always encouraged and supported the development of the Internet.
“At the same time, the development of the Internet in China must also comply with Chinese laws and regulations,“ said an emailed statement from Liu Pengyu.
China has always made it very clear that any foreign company that wants to operate there has to comply with the whims and fancies of the Communist Party. A few days ago, LinkedIn was forced to withdraw from China because it was not ready to comply with increasing regulations.
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The app developers, based in Pakistan and the United States for Quran and Bible respectively, are now waiting for updated regulations from CCP so that they can be restored.
Pakistan Data Management Services, which makes the Quran Majeed app, said it is awaiting more information from China’s internet authority about how it can be restored. The app has nearly 1 million users in China and about 40 million worldwide, said the Karachi-based company.
Olive Tree Bible Software, based in Spokane, Washington, said it’s now reviewing the requirements to obtain the necessary permit “with the hope that we can restore our app to China’s App Store and continue to distribute the Bible worldwide.”
This is not the first time China is trying to curb religious activities. Earlier, the Chinese Communist Party had blended religious books like the Quran and Bible with “socialist values” so that minorities could be brainwashed to the doctrine of the state.
The National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, the authority responsible for ethnic and religious matters, called for a “comprehensive evaluation of the existing religious classics aiming at contents which do not conform to the progress of the times.”
The government removed all the content of Socialism and inserted China’s official interpretation of Communism. One can imagine that the Chinese version of the Bible and Quran might start with a popular Communist phrase, “Religion is the opium of the people”- one of the most frequently paraphrased statements of Communist ideologue, Karl Marx.
The paragraphs of the Bible, which contradict any policy of the Communist government, would be amended or re-translated.
Before that, it was reported that the portrait of the Virgin Mary, installed in a Catholic church, was replaced by the portrait of the paramount leader, Xi Jinping.
China has its own version of Communism too! The country ranks fairly high in the list of free-market economies, and they call it “Communism with Chinese characteristics”.
Chinisation or Sinisation (as it is popularly known) is not limited to political economy or religion. The country has its own version of Facebook, Twitter, and e-commerce as well.
The Indian government, which has been very liberal to foreign companies as well as foreign religions, should learn from the Chinese government and ensure that the religious minorities follow the law of the land before placing their loyalty to some extra-territorial religion. Additionally, foreign companies should be banned if they do not comply with the law of the land.