Linux

This is a false equivalence, most courts outside china rule in favor of the GPL, so it can be enforced. Notably china does not particularily care about international intellectual property rights, and that includes the GPL.

You're right: most companies never respect the law unless they think there will be actual consequences. And, even then, they may disregard the law if the consequences are less expensive than the profits from ignoring laws. As I'm reading this, you're being downvoted, but honestly you're not wrong.

However, there are two issues with the implication of your comment: the first is the assumption that companies outside of China will ignore the GPL, which is not true. Thankfully, in many countries there are foundations with the means and will to pursue and litigate GPL violations, and one silver lining on US DMCA and IP law is that it's likely to be enforced as much for the GPL as any other license. Within China, legal enforcement depends both on what the State thinks is in its best interest, and which organ inside China that is enforcing the law. For example, a few years ago the Chinese DSL was causing foreign companies grief because how it was prosecuted was utterly unpredictable. Literally - as in, documented instances - a company could be visited by a representative of a business-friendly agency on a CSL enforcement issue, have a discussion, agree on a remediation plan and schedule, and have time to fix the issue. Or, they could be visited by the police on the same CSL enforcement issue and their CSO would be arrested and find himself in jail by the end of the day. There were a half dozen different Chinese agencies charged with enforcing the CSL and how it was handled was a roll of the dice based on which organization to which your case was assigned.

The second issue is that your comment is just what-aboutism. The fact that the US has executed numerous illegal, immoral wars does not excuse Israel's genocide in Palestine. A company in the US ignoring the GPL doesn't excuse a Chinese company doing it; the only difference is that if a foundation in the US litigates it, they're more likely to win.