I am not sure how IP theft has any relevance to how they setup their networks. Yes in the western media we hear much about the censorship and surveillance in China. We do not hear as much about their need for data sovereignty and defense against US controlled networks which I think is their higher motivation.

In the autocratic state, you do what you are told. In the free west we do what we want, but coincidentally what we want aligns with what the powerful want us to do. We may have more options to opt out in the west once we learn how we have been tricked into things.