About half of the best AI researchers I know are Chinese. I've visited universities there, and the quality of education is very high. There are a few barriers:
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.