If you think nobody reads journals like Nature, and other scientific stalwarts (which are independent of particular academic institutions), then you really have no idea how modern science works. Who reads them? Scientists read them! Science is an international, open, collaborative effort in pursuit of new knowledge. Researchers publish their work in open journals, after a long process of rigorous review from other researchers in the field. They are published in a way that provides enough information for other researchers to reproduce, and verify (or fail to verify) the work. Chinese researchers are now the largest contributors to public science, and have been for years.