It’s been common for the Chinese, and other governments, to fully fund researchers working in academic labs.
This has been going on since the 1980s.
Academia was the beachhead of the Chinese invasion of our country and they have done a long march through our institutions ever since
The Chinese were all too happy to seed fully funded students and researchers into our most strategically important research programs. And everyone in academia was more than happy to take their money and their students many of whom, BTW , were some of the most brilliant people I have met
The Chinese rapidly discovered just how cheaply and easily academics and academia could be bought off.