But yes, junior talent has relatively little value in a winner-takes-all field, while top talent, disproportionately large value.
What? I'm no expert but in basically every field and endeavor, it seems to me like all the PRC does is copy others, but have little to no legitimate homegrown innovation, and lots of "research" being basically fake and fluff.
+ even if PRC was the global hub for AI innovation, for obvious reasons, I'm not sure it would be wise for the US to import that talent.
1) Language. Much of the stuff (including e.g. variable names and comments in code) are Chinese.
2) Communication style. Even in English, things are just organized differently.
3) Culture and national differences. The issues you mentioned are real; academic publishing in China is even more problematic than in the US. (We have our own issues, which are at least as severe; just different. Every place has issues).
4) Looking in US-style sources in China, and vice-versa, isn't likely to lead to optimal outcomes.
Those and others means things are often lost in translation, but at the core, once you learn to bridge those, the quality of the better work there is very, very good.