They actually have more say than you think. And also, the government also has a lot of its own introspection about nuclear, especially after Fukushima. Couple with the huge capital costs, and it isn't a sure thing for China.
> it's worth noting that along with data and talent, there is money - China's dedicated 150 billion USD to AI as part of it's 5 year plan.
Much of the current advances in AI are not coming from federal funding (rather, private companies who are using it). Nor can you expect Chinese academia to soak up that much money and use it efficiently. Again, China has a chance at it, but it is far from inevitable. It is annoying to me when they talk about how their success is a sure thing, the Chinese government used to talk about how they would clean up their pollution problem by 2015 in 2010 because they were going to spend a lot of money on it....