My point was only about business (relationship between companies and the gov).

> unofficial disappearances

Apart from Jack Ma (I proposed an explanation), this list isn't about business: artist, actor, Interpol chief, and "A Hong Kong-based publisher who specialised in sometimes gossipy books about China’s political elite".

> foreign companies have been threatened

Indeed, my point was only about Chinese entrepreneurs and bosses, sorry for having neglected to state it.

> they also insert CCP members at board level in companies to control their direction

"The party doesn’t habitually micromanage their day-to-day operations. The firms are largely still in charge of their basic business decisions"

Also: "But pressure from party committees to have a seat at the table when executives are making big calls on investment" may be in line with my hypothesis: the gov enforces respect of a strategy defined by all (AFAIK the Japanese MITI also acted this way).

My point isn't about the Party's ways to enforce the strategy of a sector but about the method used to define this strategy: it seems to me that it mainly is defined by companies' bosses.

There also is a real will to strictly control the political side of things, which may explain some actions, which aren't the usual way.