The Chinese "Thousand Talents" program listed in the article has one-time awards of up to $150k USD.
That’s not a lot money..I’m pretty sure many researchers that qualifies that program could get a 200-400k or much more sign-on package from major tech company. The Chinese program might come with much more benefit and privileges though that couldn’t be measured by money
I think the downvotes are because it's 150k one time stipend for R&D, i.e. a grant for research. Salaries may be separate.
It's because it actually is a lot of money for academia. The "make 200k-400k signing bonus at a tech firm" is approximately the same as "just have the truck drivers join FAANG for a 50k signing bonus" - as in, there aren't that many positions that pay that well, there's a ton of competition for them, there isn't enough for everybody, so the vast majority of people are going to take this option for a variety of reasons.