China overtakes the US in terms of research quality, finds study
physicsworld.com
physicsworld.com
E.g. https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/21/research-fin...
A wrong theory can have many citations (as many experimentalists attempt to falsify it).
Moreover, I've noticed academic circle jerks -- Chinese authors citing other Chinese authors (and this pattern increases citations at a rate greater than N^2, where N is larger for China than the US).