Oh yes the Chinese Communist Party, the cake and eat it too party, where it somehow is able to access global markets and benefit from international trade rules, freely able to meddle in international affairs while embellishing its own interests.
It's mind blowing how the desperation of late stage capitalism allows the CCP to operate within these frameworks.
In this specific case, Apple axed the show because Stewart was going to talk about China's less savory behavior.
The show had been announced to have a third season, and then suddenly when Stewart was gearing up to tackle some of the issues around China, Stewart was instantly fired.
And this isn't the first time China had demanded the firing, or public apology, of a prominent American who is even slightly critical of their government.
Why does it surprise you? Capitalists have no morals. They don't give a shit about any of the stuff you're talking about. They only care about their own greed.
Seriously, people need to keep this in their mind at all times. Every single publicly traded company in the world would happily throw a bus full of children into a volcano if it got them a fraction of a point in next quarter's numbers.
This is an amateur take a best, but a strong unified China has historically always been the economic power house of the world. They're so big they can trade with everyone, and since everyone wants to trade with them, everyone has an interest in not starting conflicts. When china prospers it's usually a pretty good time for the wold. I, for one, welcome our Chinese overlords.
I'm confused, you use the term late stage capitalism, but you don't see that China is clearly not the worst offender of meddling in intl. affairs to suit their own interests. Like, America has even more access to global markets than China does, and also meddles way harder. Literally overthrowing governments, rewriting laws, or just straight up bombing to dust levels of meddling.
It's not the manufacturing that Apple is scared of losing, it's the Chinese market itself. There's over a billion people in China and Apple makes a lot of money selling them Phones and iPads.
Apple manufacturing moved a lot out of China. China still has a lot of the raw materials they need, and in quantities they need them, but recently Apple knows it needs to be faborable to them especially right now, if for nothing else to preserve the Chinese market share they currently have and try and keep relationships amicable post manufacturing move.
They use the 'demand' rhetoric to gauge support for an idea, analyse the result, and if profitable draft and pass a bill to change the thing that isn't a law into a law.
I would hope China has an equivalent. Competition like this in science and arts only elevates humanity. It's military competition we have to be careful of.
If you really want to get serious about Chinese interference, this is a discouraging sign. An example of doing the bare minimum for the lowest of stakes.
As an aside, your name is weirdly relevant. I read it and thought for a second that you made the account specifically for this comment, but nope, it seems to be a coincidence.