You should always read scientific publications with a healthy dose of scepticism - not because science isn't to be trusted, but because trying to falsify it's results and finding potential issues is an important part of the process.
If you do that, I don't see why you should treat Chinese papers differently. Sure, a country with an authoritarian government with a cultural emphasis on face might produce some papers that aren't factual due to that specifically, but dismissing the scientific output of a nation of over a billion people over that seems backwards.
I mean, if I felt morally obliged to disclose illegal or immoral practices to the public, I'd be sure to run so somewhere they can't get me. If there aren't proper whistleblower protections, you gotta make your own.