Not disagreeing with you and I know that people should be aware of this, but I don't get why this fact is always quoted as if that's a special situation in China. I mean, take the US as an example, you can't tell me that large private enterprises have connections with the government. Same for 99% of the countries, no?
I'd say the same for my european country and all of my neighboring countries. Sure, it does depend who or what the government is.
It's actually pretty low in direct effect - if the government wants the corporation's secrets, or even for a coporation to take actions on it's behalf, there are plenty of both public and private agents within the company that they can use to act or steal or whatever. What's important about it is the act of subservience. The latter is a direct admission that "The corporation serves the state's interests", whereas in the US and other free countries the state serves the people's interests, and the corporation is a group of people with common interest.
This is why Citizen's United is so important a ruling and under constant attack - Because it asserts the primacy of the people to make their interests heard, in opposition to the model where people serve the state.
Does it? I'd argue that in a lot of free, western countries the state does serve the people, but more so the ruling class and those in power. Which can happen to align with the peoples interests, but often does not, in my opinion. Lobbying, advertising and the available funds for campaigns tips the scale heavily to one side. And those in power in the west are? Exactly, the rich people from the private sector.
Citizen's United seems okay, but you can't tell me that what this tries to prevent happens constantly behind closed doors. Of course that doesn't make it less important.
