This is scarier than Hell - you must know that, don’t you?
Just because someone is considered ‘from here’, it doesn’t mean they can’t be controlled or blackmailed due to living relatives in China.
Why of course, blackmail COULD have been part of the picture. But I can’t help thinking that in such a scenario, whoever on the Chinese side dreamed this up would have known there would be blowback from flaunting a movie which is an obvious lie. I’m leaning towards the theory that this was a protest move on the part of the pianist, or requested by a “friendly” or one of his relatives.