> But it's not the role of corporate to white knighting a country cultural revolution.

You are aware that that is just your arbitrary declaration of what you think their role should be, right? I hereby declare that their role is to do just that. What now?

now china boots you out and you lose a huge market for nothing. oh, and the competitor now enjoying the higher margins will use that money to boost their brand globally, so now you've got less margin and more competition.

How do you know that?

because corporation cannot act for long above the law. whether you like the laws or not doesn't matter.

There is no such thing "the role of a corporate". A company is what you do with it.

corporate acting above the law will quickly find themselves dissolved and ousted from the market. this is not about what people feels it's good or bad, it's about what's legal and what's not in a country.

Sure. And they can simply not operate in that country.