Company using Linux violates GPL

The GPL is a system of perfect logic built on the foundation of a few flawed assumptions.

Flawed assumption #1: Others will or can be compelled to share their code.

Flawed assumption #2: Software is more or less independent of hardware.

China has no real interest in sharing with the west and there is no legal system to compel them to do so.

Software is a lot easier to produce than hardware. This gives hardware vendors (i.e. China) the upper hand in controlling the marketplace. For an example, see Android.

Have you ever tried to replace or update the software on your phone without the hardware vendors input? It's not easy because the hardware vendor has control and no interest in allowing it. And they could easily make it all but impossible if it suited them.

In other words, open source system software exists mostly to the extent that hardware vendors choose to allow it. Just because the PC platform has traditionally been fairly "open" doesn't mean it will always continue. In the history of computing, this is actually more of an aberration.

If China decided to sell low cost closed hardware boxes with some proprietary variant of Linux, there isn't much Open Source could do about it --- which is exactly what we have here.