Actually, yes. That's accurate.
Why would they waste time and their own money researching things when they can just steal it and then give that information to private and public Chinese industries? That is their entire MO. The Chinese are also responsible for $200-600 Billion worth of IP theft against the US every year.
They will do whatever it takes to make China #1 and see nothing wrong with doing this.
- https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/02/politics/china-hacking-espion...
- https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinese-hackers-took-trillions-...
- https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/16/china-intellectual-prop...