Japanese used to do this thing too -- back then Kanji was still the proper scholarly thing to use and scholars were the main contact to Western knowledge. In fact, a good number of Chinese words for Western concepts came from Japanese translations. 社会 society, 经济学 economy, 自由 liberty all came from Japanese translations.
I think it's because Japan was the first to adopt western education. It's why people you wouldn't expect to be were educated in Japan, like the founder of the CPC or Chiang Kai Shek
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/漢語中的日語借詞