I can't speak to your specific anecdotes but I can say based upon everything that I have heard and experienced myself, the Chinese government loves to steal other country's proprietary information, with the US as their top target.
They are, however, very good to their local enterprises that "pay to play." Corruption is definitely still a huge problem in China, as it is in most countries, and most certainly is in developing countries.
That said, there is a boatload of money to be made in Chinese small caps, but you have to do your DD and be very agile.
