My personal hypothesis here is the Chinese government looked at the game and simply decided not to play:

An astute Chinese analyst could reasonably forecast that they had little chance of controlling the AI market due to sovereign trust issues, but would also note that AIs are just software.

When the dust settles the US still won't have factories, and the real value of AI models is still going to be embodying them and getting them to do real, consumer facing work.

Perhaps the most striking thing about the AI boom is how quickly the US abandoned the veneer of local manufacturing in favor of more expensive buildings producing nothing you couldn't make anywhere else on the planet...from imported parts.