Americans don’t like to acknowledge that other cultures have different aaproaches to business. Why is the implication is that these practices are wrong?
I can't believe you're all going to sit here and complain about fucking booze and sex while at the same time, by doing business there at all, you're supporting a tyrannical fucking monster of a government!
The idea that Americans are going to bring up the cultureless sexist/racist/whatever Asians is indeed made fun of regularly. Well-meaning Americans have decent intentions but are also pretty culturally tone deaf on Asian societies; before we seek to export social justice, we should probably figure out how and why their societies are structured the way they are and understand the timeline you're looking at.
That. And because the country was founded by religious zealots, it still has a Christ complex to this day, regardless of if it involves a Bible Belter or a West Coast atheist. That and superiority ("manifest destiny", "leaders of the free world", "land of the free" and so on), it's just part of its cultural status quo.
The corporate policies I've had to read (without much interest as it's not relevant to my work) do not allow hospitality and entertainment for public officials unless it has been specially authorised by a senior lawyer, which suggests it's not clearly illegal in itself, though of course any attempt to "improperly influence" the official would be illegal.
Obviously it would be bad PR to be involved with the sordid stuff in the article but I'm curious about the legal aspect.