smic (partially state owned) is only two nodes behind tsmc and samsung:
https://www.tomshardware.com/news/china-chipmaker-smics-7nm-...
If their process is essentially copied from TSMC, can they keep up with R&D though? China is becoming an increasingly less desirable place to live, so just poaching Samsung and TSMC engineers and copying the process might be increasingly difficult. And I doubt they'll be able to build the tight relationship with machine designers/manufacturers like ASML that TSMC has.