"Why" is that the ruling party of China, the CCP, desires and is able to enforce this level of control. This often ties into the related idea of "State Sponsore

"Why" is that the ruling party of China, the CCP, desires and is able to enforce this level of control. This often ties into the related idea of "State Sponsored Capitalism", also sometimes called the "East Asian Model"[0] This is in contrast to more Western Capitalism (Europe, North America, etc). With Western Capitalism corporations are given much more freedom and leeway to operate and build capital. With State Sponsored Capitalism, the the state is influencing or actively controlling corporations for the state's (or ruling party's) benefit. While there are substantial differences between the two varieties of capitalism, if you squint it can be a difference of degree. For example in the West, we do have "crown corporations", and countries often put their own companies' interests above that of the global capitalist market (for example, the USA defending Boeing and going after Bombardier). One important difference is that in the West, our crown corporations/state owned enterprises are never run purely for profit. As for "how", it varies. The State may just own a controlling amount of shares, or have board seats. To put simply, in the West, often it's considered anathema for policy makers to pick "winners and losers" in the market. The idea is the market should decide. This isn't true in China. The CCP is happy to pick winners and losers, and in doing so it guarantees its own position. They user their power to make or break a company to effectively own it and use it to reinforce their strength. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_model https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Asian_model