The concept of strong IP doesn't really exist in their society. They look at is and scratch their head and think why are they making it so hard?
On the other hand, many countries have laws on the books that protect IP, including China. For example, foreign plaintiffs in patent lawsuits in China have a win rate of 84.35%, higher than the 79.84% win rate of domestic plaintiffs: https://patentlyo.com/patent/2018/02/things-infringement-lit...
The real problem with IP infringement in China is that Western companies frequently don't notice when it happens, because they don't have contacts in the Chinese market. That's why TFA recommends the affected publishers report the infringement of their IP to get the app taken down.
I am not convinced the no patent world advances any slower than the patented and heavily litigated world.
What holds back healthy competition is having a deceiving competitor copy your protected work with no regard to your property or rights.