The Statist Truth About China

China's Anxiety About Successful Companies ... China is turning independent coal-mines into state-run operations, showing its impatience with private companies that get too big. China's high-profile battle with foreign companies makes it seem as though those businesses keep the nation's economic planners awake at night. It has arrested a Rio Tinto executive on trumped-up charges, blocked Facebook and YouTube, and restricted (in practice if not in name) foreign firms from key industries such as oil, media, and metals. ... While the government has claimed it's putting forth better companies at the expense of weaker ones, the root cause remains that an ever-insecure China wants to rein in independent sources of influence (and wealth) that it feels have become too independent to control. This trend, known in Chinese as "the country advances and the private retreats," allows the government to increase its control over the economy by funneling resources and growth potential into more pliable state companies. – Newsweek