First of all, let’s explain the conditions for patent authorization:
Article 22 of the Patent Law stipulates:
The inventions and utility models for which patent rights are granted shall have Novelty, creativity and practicality.
Novelty means that the invention or utility model does not belong to the existing technology; no unit or individual has applied for the same invention or utility model to the patent administration department of the State Council before the application date, and It shall be recorded in patent application documents or published patent documents published after the filing date.
Creativity means that compared with the existing technology, the invention has outstanding substantive features and significant progress, and the utility model has substantive features and progress.
Practiceability means that the invention or utility model can be manufactured or used and can produce positive effects.
The term "existing technology" as used in this Law refers to the technology that was known to the public at home and abroad before the filing date.
Therefore, if a patent is authorized abroad and no application is filed in China within the priority period, it may not be authorized domestically due to insufficient novelty.
In addition, I would like to remind you about the time difference. If the prior foreign application is authorized under accelerated examination, and a PCT application is filed with the foreign application as the priority date, the PCT application can enter China 32 months from the priority date and may not be published yet.
So in the situation you mentioned, you still need to monitor it to be safe.