I am an full agreement with you. Plagiarism is like a disease here in China. I was recently a judge at the English speaking contest at my university. I was appalled that many of the "contestants" had openly copied material directly from the internet. Some of the students just copied several famous speeches of prominent USA politicians and activists and then read them out aloud. Laughable, but it is really a serious problem. The cunning linguist poster spoke about China's "lack of innovation" in one of his recent posts. He is spot on with that comment.

I experienced plagiarism directly last year at a Chinese university ( my own work plagiarised ) However, there is some hope, four of the contestants at the English contest last Thursday night actually took it very seriously, and their work was original and close to being excellent. Four out of forty is not exactly a good strike rate however. The Chinese must learn to think for themselves and not rely on others for ideas and inspiration.

I have reminded my students that plagiarism is unethical and dishonest, and that there can be very serious and unpleasant consequences ( public shame and very possible legal ramifications )if they choose to engage in such behaviour when the are living/studying in other nations.