Whataboutism. As always, two Wrongs don’t make a Right, and OP is not even talking about the morality of it (everyone agrees it is immoral) but about countermeasures.

> As always, two Wrongs don’t make a Right,

So US, Japan, Korea got the advantage by copying why not give the same advantage to China?

If your argument is because its wrong then are the other countries who benefited by copying going to be punished?

Why is it immoral? It is knowledge and information must be free. Copyright and patents etc are only holding mankind back.

> Why is it immoral?

Theft is immoral. I can't just sneak into your home, steal your stuff and walk away saying you're holding mankind back, can I? That's the analogy in the OP.

The argument is weather exclusivity to information and it's applications should be something that can be owned and therefore be stolen.

Samsung hasn't lost anything, they can still make the panels themselves.

The Chinese companies merely duplicated the know how.