Whichever kind of company Apple is or is not, it's impossible to keep any aspect of design and development secret if you want to merchandise it to the world. (A secret weapon, maybe, but not a mass-marketed product.) And China excels in putting into production new technology, wherever it comes from. In this regard, Apple's products may be extraordinarily successful, but they are hardly unique.

The notion that the Chinese can't innovate like the West, whether premised on liberal-political or populist-racial grounds (I believe) is absurd. Authoritarian regimes have plenty of shortcomings but modern STEM innovation, which requires the decisive direction of resources toward highly specific ends, is not one of them.