I mean I think the primary reason is really the attention is all you need paper and meta's "leaking" of meta's llama.

China is plenty happy to steal IP and just say "this is just how business is done in China it's a cultural thing" but quickly run to defend their own IP in western courts when stolen by western businesses. It works one way.

And I have experienced this firsthand when having something manufactured there. Exact clones appearing on Alibaba just days after.