Zelik]The one thing they have going for them is the ability to throw tens of thousands of people at the project and still spend way less than we do. don't be surprised if they manage to get at least 90% of the electronic capabilities of the JSF. The people they throw at this are very smart and very good at what they do. they don't innovate because they dont have to, they let us do all the hard work of dreaming, designing, building then they swoop in and steal it because it's much cheaper to do so. then they reverse engineer it and do it their own way on the cheap.
For the wider scheme of industrial espionage, you're completely right. There's very little advantage to being on the cutting edge if you can't effectively copyright what you make or secure trade secrets. The problem with that strategy is it's also why all these big companies are still here, and not in China.
As far as the military stuff goes, making knockoffs of stuff specifically designed for US military doctrine looks a lot more like showmanship than a serious attempt at contributing to a larger warfighting doctrine. They copy Russian shit too (In fact you can see the smokey hallmarks of old Russian MIG engines in videos of the J-31), and Russia's military doctrine is almost the polar opposite of US doctrine.
