In a corrupt enough society they can just go after the competitors with bogus legal claims.

Lovely handwavey truism but that doesn't do anything to explain the actual mechanism at work here.

I'm not sure where you guys are coming from, but the top officials of China acknowledges this is an issue. Are you saying that they are wrong and that China doesn't have a huge problem with corrupt officials? Or why else are you questioning these things?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/ralphjennings/2018/03/15/corrup...

In fairness accusations of corruption to remove political opponents or "troublemakers" have a long and storied history of application by genocidal dictatorships like China, democracies, and basically every form of government.

So merely having an accusation doesn't really say much.

Like patent trolling?

I don't know enough to support their extreme position, but for the sake of information:

Part of it is state-owned banks (the dominant form of banking in China) offering attractive lending to state-owned enterprises, as loan officers avoid the risk of being accused of corruption.

Also, there likely is/was more direct encouragement of exporters (e.g. by subsidies), similar to other countries, but my source doesn't specify if this currently applies to China.

Source: Fault Lines: How Hidden Fractures Still Threaten the World Economy (2010)

None of the top Chinese tech companies are state-owned. Also 2010 was before Xi Jinping. Things have changed a lot now. Now they get striked left and right by regulations. Just look at their stock price.