You and I carry E.Coli all the time, but only when it escapes the limits put on it by the immune system does it cause trouble.
Likewise, corruption and bureaucracy are in all societies, it is when they become too large a part of the economy that trouble happens. The USA has tax evaders, for example, but Greece has made it a national pastime.
The S&L crisis of the 70s involved a lot of corruption, but folks went to jail and it was over. Today's banking has a lot of corruption, but now the corruption extends to the Department of Justice and SEC and nobody goes to jail and the penalties are a small percent of the profits so it will not be over soon.
Now, I'm not enough of a historian to know exactly how much corruption or bureaucracy contributed to China's decay relative to the west, but your logic does not work.
However, it is true that a Chinese Emperor did decree the end of their ocean going fleet in the 15th Century, and you could call him the ultimate bureaucrat.
Righto.
A highly relevant, perhaps the most highly relevant, point is that no European monarch ever had such complete power.
Europe was divided and any monarch who oppressed his people in such ways risked losing them as they fled to other countries that would welcome their support. Such as the Wild Geese fleeing Ireland for France, and the Huguenots fleeing France to Prussia, England and America.
The Chinese Emperor didn't have that issue. He decreed an end to overseas exploration and trade and it stopped. Within a decade or so going overseas was a capital crime.
One reason he was able to do this was that Chinese overseas exploration was not a profit-making venture or intended to be. It was just a massively expensive essay in ego boost by the Emperor. Obviously there were other possible things for the Emperor to spend his money on and boost his ego.
So there was no native Chinese import/export merchant class that had its livelihood directly impacted by the decree.
At this time in Europe every country had traditional and/or legal rights of various groups that would have prevented any monarch from exercising such absolute control.