Do you think they'd do all that if it were considered socially acceptable to cheat? Teachers don't want their students to pass a course by cheating and they try to find and punish those who do. Students are obviously aware of that; they simply cheat anyway if they think they can get away with it.
Not getting away with it is what I think causes the perception that Chinese students cheat more than others. Writing assignments in their native language would allow them to discuss with their friends, take a look at their answers, then write it up in their own words. Not having the language skills to do that makes evading detection a lot harder. As I said, I have observed essentially the same dynamic with international students in China.
So based on my personal experience, I don't think Chinese students cheat more than those of other countries. Of course the only other education system I know from the inside is that of Germany, where several ministers (including the minister of education [1]) had to resign after plagiarism was found in their dissertations. Maybe in other countries students who are faced with the choice of probably failing a course because they can't do an assignment or possibly failing after getting caught cheating will take the honorable option. I doubt it, though.
Please. Some action is being taken against it in recent years, but in tertiary education it's considered socially acceptable to cheat and plagiarise.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/3012741/how-...
https://uschinatoday.org/features/2011/03/28/unraveling-plag...
https://www.aliesq.com/articles/2018/11/6/academic-plagiaris...
How do you reconcile your viewpoint with all the evidence even in the comments here of Chinese students blatantly copying entire published works, after they sign disclaimers saying they understand the penalties for doing that?