[beebmam]

Even if it can attributed to a "civilian" company, China is not a free country under Xi Jin Ping's rule. The CCP has many mechanisms to control the Chinese private sector as an arm of the state.

Xi Jin Ping exercises more control over Chinese society than Stalin could have dreamed of in the Soviet Union, with the various coercive systems put into place in the last few decades.

[mardifoufs]

This is a bit absurd, xi absolutely wouldn't be able to go ahead with purges similar to those of Stalin in 1937, even if he wanted to. He simply doesn't have the authority to do so. The chinese politburo is a much much more complicated beast than the usual stereotype of a powerless puppet of an all powerful dictator, that tons of people in the west seem to think it is.

[beebmam]

Let's not forget that Xi just publicly purged any remaining factions in the politburo that could have opposed him. Xi has more power in China than Mao ever had. Even under Mao, it took years before opposition factions had the ability to end the cultural revolution. Xi could easily crush any opposition to his rule, and already has. There's no need for a cultural revolution or a mass assassination campaign, he's already won. There is no opposition faction of any significant size.

And Chinese society is actively being sculpted using modern propaganda techniques on social media to be hyper nationalistic and hate the US/west. This is far more powerful than what Stalin ever had at his disposal.

[sneak]

It works much the same in the US, both related to secret control of major industry (see FAA702 etc) and "various coercive systems" enabled by the IC's surveillance and offensive tools.