What Dan is describing is the triumph of politics over everything else. Deng Xiao Peng diagnosed Chinese society during the Mao era and said the very real inability to contradict the party line was what ailed China. People were not allowed to believe in reality but had to swallow every line from the central committee. This is the Seek Truth from Facts speech that marked the opening of China to the modern world. Corporate America is its own Potemkin village where political lobbyists and legal protections keep them alive despite massive corruption and the harm done to customers.

http://en.people.cn/dengxp/vol2/text/b1260.html