While it’s true that multinationals like BMW, Apple, Boeing, and Starbucks also stayed the course in China, the cars, phones, airplanes, and coffee they sell differ from McKinsey’s flagship product. By dispensing its know-how to state-owned companies such as China Communications, the builder of the South China Sea islands, McKinsey was bolstering the power of the Chinese state and the ruling Communist Party. Xi made clear that there was no distance between the Communist Party and leading state-owned enterprises like China Communications, telling party cadres that “adhering to party leadership
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