We are just splitting hairs here. In an authoritarian state with no real "rule of law" (yes there are laws but the party is more powerful than the law and power

We are just splitting hairs here. In an authoritarian state with no real "rule of law" (yes there are laws but the party is more powerful than the law and power is completely concentrated in the hands of a few, possibly just one), what does it even mean to not be "state controlled"? Everything in China is controllable by the state. China has never had "rule of law". It's always been a very precocious state when it was able to centralize power since the Qin dynasty. Its rulers has never had to divest that power nor implement any sort of real rule of law. Laws in China serve the state, not the other way around (contrast that with Western liberal democracies). This stems from Qin's Legalist origins and every dynasty since then has inherited that basic idea even while they dressed it up with Confucian ethics. I'm not saying if it is right or wrong but I think some of us who grew up in Western liberal democracies can't even fathom any other systems that may exist and still function well* (depends on your objectives).