I suspect the internet for China is a resource, one they plunder. Now, this may just be international news media propaganda talking through my fingers, but I don't see what China contributes to "a global system of interconnected networks." China, it seems to me, is poor in everything except manual labour and hot cash. For them, network connections beyond the border function mostly as mine tunnels into foreign infrastructure bearing such riches as operational data and IP. These connections aren't much of a communication tool outside the language group, and do they show off properties valuable to anyone on the outside? There is, supposedly, huge potential value in China, big social networks and so forth - or at least it would be potential if there were ways to communicate, but there aren't.
Is there anything to admire here? What do they give back? It's not the case that "the west" somehow owns all the sophisticated institutions that make it a developed world. It's not the case that China owes some dues for all the forms they copy. If, say, car design IP is stolen, they owe for that. But do they owe anything for taking to cars themselves? Do they owe anything for copying, say, forms of law? Nope, probably not. Oddly, if it were the west copying China, it seems like Chinese, or some Chinese, might say, yeah, you owe something to China for that. China invented gunpowder, etc.
But with all this stuff that's being ripped off, what is China sharing in return? What I mean is, why wouldn't they just shut down the communication channels? What fundamental interest would be hurt? If they're not sharing good stuff now, how are they offering anything later?