A good, timely piece about the significant conflicts of interest that arise when governments become involved in commercial enterprises. China is a particularly worrisome as the government is not only a big owner in the 50,000 or so SOEs, it also exerts control over, e.g., private tech groups, which are obliged to have their own party committees, and in some cases, SOEs become anchor investors.

It is also important to point out that on the other side of the corporate governance continuum is private equity investing, which has seen minimal instances of scandals or frauds. For good reason. Private equity groups are active and highly engaged co-owners (with management) of their portfolio companies for a limited investment period (5-7 years). During that time private equity partners ensure portfolio company board members are highly informed experts, are sufficiently resourced (e.g., capital, operating experts, etc.) and motivated (have substantial "skin in the game") to create value.