SHANGHAI: Amazon.com said thatfrom Thursday it will stop supplying retailers in China with itsKindle e-readers and will shut its Kindle e-bookstore in thecountry next year, the in latest pullback by a U.S. tech firmfrom the restrictive Chinese market.

Amazon announced the decision on its official WeChat accounton Thursday. It did not give a specific reason, but said it wasadjusting the strategic focus of its operations and that itsother business lines in China would continue.

The Kindle China e-bookstore will stop selling ebooks fromJune 30 next year, it said, though customers will be able tocontinue downloading any purchased books for a year beyond that.

It will also remove the Kindle app from Chinese app storesin 2024, it added.

“We remain committed to our customers in China. As a globalbusiness, we periodically evaluate our offerings and makeadjustments, wherever we operate,” a spokesperson for Amazonsaid in an emailed statement.

“With our portfolio of businesses in China, we will continueto innovate and invest where we can provide value to ourcustomers.” The spokesperson declined to provide further commenton the decision.

Amazon’s remaining businesses in China include cross-bordere-commerce, advertising and cloud services. It shut down itsChina online store in 2019.

Reuters reported in December last year on Amazon’s deep,decade-long effort to win favour in Beijing to protect and growits business in China.

The report detailed how the Kindle business was one it hadsought to expand in China, and cited an internal 2018 Amazonbriefing document that said by the end of 2017, China had becomeKindle’s largest global market, “accounting for 40%+ of ourworld device sales volume”.

Amazon joins a long line of Western internet companies,including Linkedin, Yahoo and Airbnb Inc to have cut services inor retreated completely from China in recent months, amidgovernment efforts to tighten control over online content andnew laws targeting data sharing and customerprivacy.