Company makes game, their intellectual property. Someone else makes a cheat and makes a lot of money destroying their IP, causing them to lose money as players decide the game "has too many cheaters".
Obviously gaming companies do try to employ technical solutions to the problem, but I would guess this outfit got so large simply by being ignored.
It does really blow my mind that makers of software that people buy and run on their own machines are going to get locked in a cage because they were undermining a game's design.
I've actually had some respect for China's treatment of intellectual property, as I believe a looser IP policy allows for faster innovation in society. This is just enforcing corporate interests though, it's not the world I want to see and it's going to take some very talented developers and reverse engineers out of the job market.
And it ruins the day for for millions of people who just want to enjoy the game.
I anal, but have previously done both cheat and anticheat as a kid.
In the US, I think a company's only route would be a lawsuit, if the only thing going on was game cheating and ToS violation. Though I could be wrong.
There's no indication in the article that anything like this happened here. But that's not surprising or interesting, because there's no real rule of law or due process in China. The government and anyone in their favor just completely annihilates anyone they deem undesirable.