You hear this argument all the time, and I'm sure there is substance to it... But I cannot help but feel that it's misconstruing reality a little.

I think the issue isn't running the established companies in the ground - EVs aren't really that complicated for new brands to bootstrap if China stopped their subventions... It's where these cars are being produced, and that's already China for almost everything, or am I wrong there?

Seriously, if China wanted to ruin these companies it could just pass a legislation that makes production for $established_brand impossible, and that company would be hard pressed for years to get production up and running - and I sincerely doubt they would have enough runway to get through that.