Chrome is more like Java or .NET runtime than C runtime. You can build full blown apps as Chrome packaged apps. Google has not polished it very well. If done well, developers can use it to build apps that run on Windows/Mac/Linux without change.
It CAN be like Java or .NET if you build on top of it with packaged apps, or it can be like the new C runtime if you statically compile bits of chrome in to your application, as a 'stack' that you build on, which is what the author is describing.