CCP wanted to catch up with the west in terms of scientific output. They set targets for quantity, which were duly met: China now produces more research papers

CCP wanted to catch up with the west in terms of scientific output. They set targets for quantity, which were duly met: China now produces more research papers than the USA. China has a history of things like this, e.g. the way that villagers melted down their pots and pans to increase "steel production" during the Great Leap Forward and ended up with unusably low grade steel combined with no cooking implements.