I think the question is what do they have to gain from not stealing? They’re trying to modernize and catch up, so at some point they will catch up and they won’t be able to steal anymore. At some point it would be unfair if China steals foreign tech and then sells it back, but it’s not at that point yet. Currently they steal tech to catch up, and provide cheap manual labor in return.
I think we’re complacent because this theft hasn’t actually come around to affect us yet. If China takes stolen tech and uses it internally, it’s hard to justify stopping them from doing so. If they take it and sell it on the international market, then you can use international trade agreements to enforce intellectual property laws and prevent their sale.
I think a good analogy is that China is pirating some software but not using it commercially, just personally at home, so there’s no way to really enforce compliance.
Tell that to Ericsson, who (warning: unsubstantiated claim ahead, but its a widely held industry belief) have had their entire business gutted by Huawei who basically copied entire designs from Ericsson core-mobile equipment
