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.
If we continue to advance our technology how do they remain equal when the theft by them is curtailed?
All these stories about the “Wonderful and brilliant” Chinese are propaganda pieces written by sympathizers. I’m not suggesting they will never catch us technologically but they haven’t done so yet and it will be a while before they do, if they do because we are not a stationary target.