All other countries have heavily state sponsored economies. We just call them "subsidies", "research grants", "tax rebates" etc.

Many industries wouldn't be where they are without decades long government intervention, and govs will also apply extra scrutiny on who owns which company, and pick up the winners as needed for national interests.

China is the most transparent about it, but being transparent and being the most engaged in it are two different things.

To be clear, I think that's just the natural state of things. Real free markets are chaos and we want countries to actually think about where they're going.