Small shops aren't the means of production but the profit extraction still operates through robbing wage slaves of the surplus value they create. The petite bougie bosses you're trying to shill for are some of the most reactionary elements that go straight for fascism because it promises them protections from international capital (which is defined as a conspiratorial cabal unlike domestic capital hence their almost anti-capitalist rhetoric sometimes). They're also some of the most cruel because they directly cheat employees that they know and interact with personally.

Yes, i want highly centralized production owned by the people not highly decentralized production owned by a multitude of petit-bourgeoisie. I want stuff to be abundant for everybody through mass production, not highly constrained by small scale production.

I'd be more surprised if countries like the US, China, and Russia weren't trying to influence each other.

It seemed like the best source available from a ten-second Google search while taking a shit, but I can nip down to the local CIA field office and pick up some classified ops docs if you want a primary source, I'm sure they make that info available.