In a somewhat surreal turn of events, the author of that post concludes that "Hobbled by such constraints and limitations, China's chatbots are certain to be inferior to those of free societies."

(He is prone to slamming the CCP regardless of whether he can make a logical case, which is odd since it's not like it's hard to make justified criticisms. He is also known for his habit of deleting comments if he doesn't like them, which is why that post has only the one comment on it.)

They are doing it to curry PR and political favor, which can be useful to secure favorable regulation, not because they think it. Whether it is “childish” is irrelevant to the calculations which support doing it.