It seems that one major reason is because they are communist and they don't believe in private property. They believe that no one has a right to have their own property and so everything must be shared for the good of all. So when "evil" American companies try to protect their IP, the Chinese view themselves as being the good guy by opening up that knowledge so that anyone can use it. Pretty interesting thing that I haven't heard talked about very much. Here are some more thoughts on this:https://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/cs201/projects/communism-computing-china/intelproperty.html
Anyone here have any other perspectives or more to share on this topic?