Perhaps and likely so the machines they produce hard drives on now are an evolution of what they were given before.
In any case it will take more than 10 yrs to convince me they have suddenly become innovative on their own. They are far to corrupt in their business dealings as judged by how we do business (not saying we don’t engage in industrial espionage but not against China)
They don’t necessarily *have* to become innovative. Merely equaling tech development then outproducing us will lead to an advantage - ask the German veterans of the Eastern Front in WW2 how that worked out as the tsunami of T-34s buried them.