Also plausible is that the Americans don't want to toot their own horn (as the CIA and NSA seldom do) and the Chinese don't want to appear vulnerable and admit they were hacked. The difference in responsibilities to the people that a dictatorship and a democracy are stark, almost regardless of how broken of a democracy it is.

I am no hacking expert, but the fact that the internet is such an open place and knowledge sharing is so widespread, I would lean to the side that they have comparable hacking capabilities as America. I've yet to hear of a reason why they wouldn't other than the standard " 'Murica #1". And given a dictatorship presiding over a massive economy and a valid raison d'etre for such capabilities, there is no reason they cannot fund an equivalent of the NSA