In the best case that's a misunderstanding of the political situation in the US. As a reference, recall HQ2 where Amazon was negotiating to skirt property taxes for the next infinity years with the local government. All corporations technically have access to these, but regulatory capture is strong in the US and market incumbents tend to have a lot of weight to throw around to make sure they get favorable tax loopholes and exemptions. Access to these sorts of loopholes is also probably influenced by social network strength which a lot of chinese nationals (especially ones openly representing nationalized companies or the subsidiaries thereof) would find difficult to establish.

Those are opposite things. True, US corporations are independent and can gain influence over parts of the government. In China, the government controls the corporations.

Chinese nationals are the largest foreign group of investors in US commercial and residential real estate. They have plenty of access. The success and scale of the Belt and Road Initiative directly shows just how vast the control extends.

Is this separate from US investment abroad - historically, when the US was at it's peak, there were governments in central and south america that were overthrown to make sure fruit corporations received favorable government treatment. In the modern world we're seeing the influence of the US waning, but lots of countries have "voluntarily signed on" to buying the boondoggle that is the F-35 even after all of the negative press and the US (or US organizations) still have significant political sway in eastern africa, though their losing it.

In China the government appears to clearly control the corporations (while there are some highly influential corporations that, through their economic power, have essentially become moves and shakers in the government) in America corporations control the government (while there are a lot of former politicians who end up sneaking off into highly paid do-nothing positions for their help during their tenure in elected office). These things are different, and America is absolutely a more free place, but it isn't an absolutely free place.

We're not disagreeing on whether America is a free market. No country is. Your post on taxes was perhaps a bad example but regardless the topic here is about Amazon leaving China. The reason as I see it is not because they were a poor competitor but rather because they were not allowed to compete.