LOL! When was that pray tell?
Going back thousands of years, the Chinese had a system of government academic exams that all citizens had the opportunity to take. It was the only method for sociocultural advancement, so the citizens tended to study a lot and the culture always had a heavy predilection for academics.
From what I can tell, stealing academic material wasn’t part of it until the CCP came along.
If you ever went to school in an area with heavy Chinese population like I did at one point, you would have had first hand experience with the academic aspect of their culture.
If you haven’t been asleep your whole life, you’ve had an awareness at least of the reputation of Chinese students.