I live in the San Diego area and have personal and real experience listening to his nonsense. He was a nutter when he ran for office in the 90's and I doubt he has changed.
It's funny, I remember exactly this kind of "they're Asian's, they have a long view that us Westerners just can't do" kind of hand wringing the last time we were sure an Asian country was going to take over the world economically. That was Japan in the 90's, didn't work out quite like that in the end. China does have to answer to their people, in fact the leadership sees the entire world through the lense of internal stability and an obsessive worry that if they don't keep the country happy they'll have a revolution on their hands. Which has led to a lot of what would be called short-view measures by even the most generous evaluation, i.e. buying up billions in stock to avert a stock market crash last year.
He was pointed out by the campaign because he wrote negative things about trade with China. The rest is irrelevant. It's academic backing for the campaign's trade position. There's nothing else to it.
Well, social targeting is fine in terms national stability I guess. Besides, Chinese government should know better what kind of domestic policy is required to rein their nation.