With the Boeing 737 MAX, it was actually the Chinese Civil Aviation Administration that first decided to ground the plane. The American FAA was reluctant to ground the plane, and only did so after most of the rest of the world had done so.

This is a case of American regulators putting an American company's business interests above safety. If it had been a foreign aircraft manufacturer, I doubt the FAA would have waited to ground the planes.

How lax they are is more a function of closeness to the powerful factions of the CCP than the scale of malfeasance.

Closeness to power generally seems to be a source of laxness, across many different societies.