Beijing has become increasingly emboldened in pushing America’s internet giants to follow its local internet laws, which forbid unregistered censorship-evasion software. Because Amazon’s cloud services allow customers to lease servers in China, it could be used to give Chinese internet users access to various types of software that would help them get around the Great Firewall. In cloud computing, China requires foreign companies have a local partner and restricts them from owning a controlling stake in any cloud company. While Microsoft and Amazon both run cloud services in China, similar ones run by local Chinese internet rivals dwarf them in scale. In particular Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba runs its own cloud services, which have grown rapidly in China.

Source: New York Times August 01, 2017 11:03 UTC