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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.