Comment by arp242

And even if it wouldn't directly have fingers in the pie, it's an authoritarian state, and it always has de-facto control over anything it decides to control. The state can always just waltz in like a mafia boss: "nice outfit you have here, would be a shame if anything were to happen to it..."

While more democratic nations are not entirely flawless on this, the separation of powers, independent judiciary, and free press do offer protections against this, as does having a general culture where these sort of things aren't accepted. Again, not flawless 100% foolproof protections, but in general it does work reasonably well.