It's not so much "cheating" but consider this: China is a communist country (for the most part). The concept of "ownership" doesn't really apply to a lot of things in their culture. Everything is owned "by the people," so the idea of intellectual property doesn't really exist.

If they see something and think they can make a version of it, they do it. It's why even the good factories that make stuff for export have parallel production lines that make the same product with less time invested in quality control for their domestic market. Some of that stuff leaks out as "counterfeit" goods.