Take a look at how China has treated google and facebook. They have sought to create the social network, the search network of their country. They create domestic e-commerce sites. Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are the technologies they have learned and the next step is that they seek to kill bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies to build their crypto. China has more than 1 billion people and they are aware that the market from their country is potential.
In terms of human resources, they have enough programmers to create their own blockchain.
It's indeed true, there has been a trend whenever something comes from the western world, Instead of z China going with the flow, they just decide to create a version of the very same thing or I will say duplicate it for its citizens for their very own reasons. With their stance against cryptocurrencies it wouldn't be surprising to see them outing their very own cryptocurrency.