Honestly, I'm not surprised at all by this. Producers have long known 'the formula' for a successful song, and we've seen it applied over and over again to the top 40's carbon-copy 'artists' that the media have been pushing on us for decades.
If they can do the same thing without paying any artists, of course they're going to do it. As you said, it's the American way. I've been expecting this to happen since Luo Tianyi started making money in China.