To give you some context, there is a massive government sponsored anti-China propaganda campaign going on in the US in order to give pretext to a Cold War style ramping up of tensions, economic conflicts, military conflicts etc. because America sees China as an economic competitor now like it did the USSR. This article and the sentiments of so many in HN are simply the result of that campaign.

Edit: It’s not a conspiracy theory when almost every China bad news story can be sourced to organizations sponsored by the CIA.