Good question, but it helps me make my point: The US (and surely Russia, China) all have clandestine operations within Facebook. This is not part of a 'deal' w

Good question, but it helps me make my point: The US (and surely Russia, China) all have clandestine operations within Facebook. This is not part of a 'deal' with Facebook, it's regular spy-craft. But Facebook does not drive it's policy around the wishes clandestine operatives within the company! The US and Russia surely have clandestine operatives within Tencent as well. But the CCP has something entirely different: legit, out in the open entities there to oversee and ensure CCP party policy and Xi's orders are effectively executed. If the Executive team at Tencent didn't 'get with the program' they would be forced out. While they don't probably care about regular operating matters, they do in fact 'hold the real power'. For example, if Tencent decided to not censor certain subjects, action would be very quickly taken. Not only does the CCP have minders in Tencent/WeChat - they have them in almost every Chinese company [1]. These 'inner minders' are literally the direct apparatus of state control within the ostensibly private economy. When we talk about 'state control of the economy' - this is literally it. The US corollary would be Government officials in every single US private company, overseeing that everyone adheres to GOP policy for example. So not just Facebook, but Cisco, Disney, GM, Mattel, CNN, Morgan Stanley, B of A, Goldman - etc. - many of which would also be directly owned by the US government, as of course in China most major banks are nationalized. If the CEO of Goldman doesn't do what Mr. White House and 'The Party' want him to do - he'd be 'out' and someone more 'pragmatic' about their capitalism (i.e. make money but bend the knee where they have to) would be 'in'. From TheGuardian [2]: "(in Xinjiang) there are QR codes on people’s doors for when the party goes in to check on who is in. If someone leaves through the back door instead of the front door, that can be considered suspicious behaviour." - one of many chilling examples of control that is enabled by private companies, controlled 'from the inside' by CCP staff. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/25/china-business-xi-jinping-communist-party-state-private-enterprise-huawei https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jul/25/china-business... [2] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/26/china-technology-social-management-internet-social-credit-system https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/oct/26/china-tec...