The difference being the scale and scope of government involvement in the stealing of technology specifically, not colonial antics of forcing the port of Canton open so opium can be imported from British India.

We're not talking about the history and legacy of colonialism. I think that debate has been long settled and traditional colonialism is behind us. The type of colonialism we are now seeing is, for example, infrastructure loans that end up as a backdoor into gaining control of strategic assets in resource-rich but underdeveloped countries, which seems to be the MO of the belt-and-road initiative.