> Directives like this from Beijing indicate how challenging it is for central governments... even the CPC, to fully control the behaviour of private sector companies.

They can fully control them, alright, but they aren't stupid - full control of behavior doesn't mean full control of results.

> As the US vs China competition unfolds at state level, the State vs Corp conflict within both countries will [be] an important below-the-surface theme.

In the US, there's no conflict and hasn't been for a while. The corp counter-revolution in China fizzled a few years ago, thus the conflict there was extinguished too. That explains a lot, including the sanctions that force China to build local chip capacity.

There's little below the surface, hidden in plain sight - yes.