It's normal. IIRC Early America didn't have Copyright or other protections, they were added later once it was making its own works and had skin in the game.

So now that China has skin in the game, will they very soon stop stealing IP by your logic?

Copyright and patents have been a part of the US since before day one. It's in Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution and was even part of the Articles of Confederation.

Patents were established even before Columbus.

What about it is normal? "Early America" allowed copyright infringement on American soil as long as the IP was stolen from foreign nations, but simultaneously enforced IP nationally and internationally on any claims made by a US company?

Do you have some examples of this? Because I hear it parroted a lot and yet the only thing people can point to is "but the US stole some designs from Brittain on some early machines" - which is not at all what we're talking about here, and was at nowhere near the scale of China's theft.

You probably heard references to Samuel Slater. He memorized the plans for British textile equipment and brought them to the US. He violated British law, but US law did not mind.

Then there is Eli Whitney, to give an example of an American who enjoyed US patent protection. He patented his cotton gin.

You would want to ask a historian for other examples.