Not sure the Chinese taxpayer is footing the bill though - of course, it might not be net zero, there might be secondary effects, etc.
A few days ago I read an article saying the Chinese utilities have a pricing structure that favors high-tech industries (say, an AI data center), making the difference by charging more the energy-intensive but less sophisticated industries (an aluminium smelter, for example).
Admittedly, there are some advantages when you do central and long-term economic planning.
You are right that we can directly observe the cost of inference for open models.