I agree; China is not going to change until IP law becomes important to them internally. When the Chinese decide that they want strong protection from themselves in the realm of IP law they will begin taking the international issues seriously. Same issue with developing nations blocking expansions to intellectual property treaties through the WIPO; As long as the country is not suffering from internal IP conflict/pressure it will not benefit from strong international IP law and compliance.
If I understand the history correctly, the USA didn't recognize international IP until it joined
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property in 1887 (for patents and to some extent trademarks and industrial design rights) http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?lang=en&treaty_id=2
and
Berne Convention for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works in 1989 (for copyrights) http://www.wipo.int/treaties/en/ShowResults.jsp?lang=en&treaty_id=15
Note that these dates are 100 years apart. Also note the 100/200 years between 1790 when USA IP law was established and the joining of relevant conventions. China's non-compliance is not very different practically from the USA's many generations of non-recognition. However, China is part of the mentioned treaties which could indicate that eventual compliance is not likely. And I realize that international enforcement was probably almost impossible until recently anyway.