[rsynnott]

> I thought a majority of Chinese businesses are state owned.

Where'd you get that? The state has a significant (though usually less than controlling) ownership stake in about 1.5% of Chinese businesses, and at least _some_ ownership in about 2%.

"The state owns some of this" is, of course, not equivalent to "the state meaningfully controls this".

But in any case for this sort of activity you'd probably just establish new companies, which the state wouldn't have any share in anyway. And, also, this is kinda academic, because you wouldn't be doing it in China, you'd be doing it in some third country and transhipping goods originating in China.

[ffsm8]

I have never been to China, but you sound informed on the topic - maybe you can weight in on that.

I've heard from various YouTube channels covering news about China, it's social issues and shenanigans that all companies above a certain size are required to have someone on staff that's essentially part of the government. These channels are however mostly run by people speaking very good English, so clearly made for the western market.

But Googling that information seems to confirm it, too. I.e.

> Since 2018, domestically-listed companies are required to establish a party entity.

I cannot speak with confidence on the topic, but from an uninformed spectators perspective, it does sound like timewizards argument was correct?