It doesn't seem like it a license to publish that's being controlled. It sounds more akin to a business license to collect money in app. The article alludes to ad supported games still being eligible for publication. This likely has something to do capital flight controls in China.

“However, this major pivot to only accepting paid games that have a game license, coupled with China’s extremely low number of foreign game licenses approved this year, will probably lead more game developers to switch to an ad-supported model for their Chinese versions,”