Sunfish,
You seem a little asiaphobic about investing in Asia.
You have highlighted two examples of Australian 'individuals' that 'may' have contravened local laws. What you have failed to grasp is that these companies continue to trade in these countries and continue to return profits to their relevant shareholders.
Why don't you pay a little visit to some large multinationals that have invested in Asia and see what they have to say? Ford, GM, Fiat, Citibank, Volkswagen, ANZ, NAB all seem to be comfortable with their positions in Asia. AirAsia has now established two companies, one in Malaysia and the other in Thailand which now covers a large section of Asia. Thailand still has ownership restrictions but Malaysia is quite open to investment, maybe that's where AJ will be parking some airplanes?
In the words of a friend who works with Merrill Lynch in Asia "Asia with all it's faults is too big to ignore."
To finish off with here is a little article I found:
In modern years, multinational companies have accelerated their large investment in China. McDonald’s forlorn has built 52 factories in China. ABB Group established 20 common ventures. Volkswagen AG set up four large seam ventures and one solely-invested enterprise with a compute investment of U.S.$ 2 billion. In addition, Boeing has three large united ventures, and the key components of 3100 Boeing planes now hurried worldwide were made in China. Moreover, with the relocation fever, multinational companies are intensifying their localization stratagem of the “origin in China.”