This past weekend the Financial Times published an article titled, “An Accident Shows How China Treats Consumers,” a sad and infuriating story about an American small business owner who was badly injured in the mid-1990′s by faulty pyrotechnics produced by a mainland Chinese State-owned Enterprise (SOE). Since then, Robert Silverman has been seeking justice to cover the costs of his ongoing medical treatment and inability to ever work again.

The article interlaces an interview with Silverman with a narrative about the ongoing legal wrangle and observations about the way SOEs are managed in China:

“These [top management jobs] are very political positions,” says Greg Anderson, a former financial executive with broker Charles Schwab who now studies Chinese business at the University of California at Los Angeles. The goals of Chinese state-owned companies’ chief executives are simple, he says: to “get bigger and ensure that nothing bad happens”. Promotion depends on them; anything less spells relegation.

“It’s all about the CEO extending his reach, building up his social resources and his power base,” says Anderson. “One never knows when one may need to call in a favour in order to complete a business deal, stay out of jail, get a job for a relative, etc…” The cultural imperative also underpins a sense of caution; wanting to avoid mistakes at all costs. “SOE leaders may want to take big, high-profile risks (and of course some do), but generally they prefer to play it safe because to aim high and to lose could cost them a very comfortable retirement. The capitalist manager’s retirement is tied more to corporate success as defined by profitability.”

Ultimately, though it will be a long time before Chinese SOEs, especially those seeking respect and credibility in the international marketplace, will step into the light of accountability, and act responsibly from the moment of product conception:

The culture that underpins Chinese business, that is, means the fear is of getting caught rather than of doing harm. And that is bad news for all those millions of global consumers buying the billions of products that carry the legend “Made in China” and thinking that they have the same kind of comeback they might have in the UK, say, or the US.