This could be a big competitiveness advantage for China in two major ways: 1) there is a large contingent of Chinese nationals studying abroad, and them having

This could be a big competitiveness advantage for China in two major ways: 1) there is a large contingent of Chinese nationals studying abroad, and them having access to SciHub makes it easier for them to be accustomed to it should they return to China to research there and 2) it would give China metrics on what papers are looked up and by who (sometimes down to the institution level), which might help them find high impact places to build upon research that other people might not have thought of.