If the report is referring to the jet’s fly-by-wire control system, that seems highly improbable. Fly-by-wire systems, like that used on the F-16 and various Airbus airliners, are triple-redundant systems and highly reliable—they have to be, since they are making inputs literally by the second.
On the other hand, I wonder if the J-15 was outfitted with some sort of automatic landing system that was being tested at the time of the crash. Development of that technology would be a logical step for the PLAN; the U.S. has had that sort of system for almost 60 years.
Our prototypes also crashed, and we corrected, unfortunately the Chinese will also correct until they get it right.