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A Chinese saying goes:

能骗就骗 (Néng piàn jiù piàn)

The literal meaning is: If you can trick/cheat, then trick/cheat.

The saying teaches that there is no reason to be honest just for the sake of being honest. That is, if you can benefit from a dishonest action and know that you definitely won't suffer any financial, reputational, or other damage that outweighs the benefit, then you should act dishonestly. To put it simply, if you can cheat and get away with it, then cheat.

My question is this: How is this idea commonly/idiomatically expressed in German?

I humbly hope that my question does not violate the rules of this SE, because my question is not meant to be a broad request for all similar phrases or a request for subjective opinions about which German phrase is the closest. I just want to learn one or a few German idiomatic phrases that express the above wisdom.

I did a lot of research by making various Google search requests and reading lists of German proverbs, but was unable to find anything close enough. The closest thing I could find is this: "Wer es allen recht machen will muss früh aufstehen." As far as I understand, the precise literal meaning is, "He who wants to do right things to everyone has to wake up early." This sounds to me like, "If you want to be fair and just to everyone, you will have to live a very hard life," and is apparently a sort of justification of cheating, but I am unsure as to what the standard interpretation is. Even if it is the same as mine, this German phrase is rather weak and indirect as compared to the Chinese saying, which directly instructs you to cheat whenever you can. I also found an aphorism by Otto von Bismarck, "Prinzipien haben heißt, mit einer Stange quer im Mund einen Waldlauf machen." Although this phrase apparently can be used as a justification of being unscrupulous, it seems to be rather about impracticality of being too rigid in the most general sense. As I was unable to find anything better, I wonder how the mighty German language idiomatically conveys such a simple thing as 能骗就骗.

Other languages have pretty direct equivalents. For instance, an English saying goes, "Never give a sucker an even break." This phrase means that one should take advantage of those who are not well informed if given the chance, as is fully equivalent to the Chinese proverb, as the logic is fully preserved: If you can trick, then trick → If he can be tricked, then trick him → If he is a sucker, then trick him → Never give a sucker an even break. The emphasis by the word "never" is very much in the spirit of the Chinese proverb. Russian sayings are pretty direct, too: "не обманешь - не продашь" (if you don't lie, you won't sell) and "не наебёшь - не проживешь" (if you don't f*ck people over, you won't survive).

I humbly hope that the native German speakers of this SE can kindly teach me a proper idiomatic German way of expressing the above Chinese wisdom.

I cannot think of a really close equivalent, because your proverb shows an attitude that is not well received - at least few people would publicly admit they feel this way. The closest one that comes to my mind is

Nimm, was Du kriegen kannst

which literally translates to take whatever you can but rather means to take any benefit that is offered or available up to the point where you exploit someones generosity or take something that you may formally claim even if you are not the intended beneficiary of the rule

Still by saying this you exhibit an attitude many people might not agree to. It is not a widely accepted rule of behaviour.

There is a common German proverb from a slightly different angle:

Der Ehrliche ist immer der Dumme.

translating to "The honest one will always turn out to be the dumb one", or paraphrased: "Acting honest is just not worth it".

The connotation can be a bit different though, I believe. Often, the proverb is used by someone who has been honest himself and lost out to someone who wasn't, and who uses it to complain that the world isn't fair... without necessarily changing his mind about his own willingness to cheat (well, maybe a little).

There is an idiom referring to the ten commandments.

Das elfte Gebot heißt: Laß dich nicht erwischen.

The eleventh commanments reads: Do not get caught.

One variation is

Du kannst alles machen, du darfst dich nur nicht erwischen lassen.

You can do everything you want, just don't get caught.

which is quite fitting for your saying.

The 2nd part of this became relatively famous because of a talk last year at the 35th Chaos Communication Congress (35C3) named "Du kannst alles hacken – du darfst dich nur nicht erwischen lassen."