I do not understand how that is, even remotely, a plausible explanation for the fraud scandals. It makes me think of this comic http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/i-was-only-pretending-to-be-re...

Despite IP laws being useless in the international arena it's not too far fetched that even the Chinese, despite being so large, are aided by the whole global scientific community reviewing and replicating their results. It makes progress all that much faster and easier.