So I'm guessing an article like this is trying to imply that China is "lying" about this, without outright stating, just implying that this is a "slogan" and like any political slogan in the west, it is meaningless and will not actually effect policy at all.

I do wonder how they square the circle of an "evil dictator" who doesn't need to come up with empty political slogans to win re-election making up slogans anyway. I guess the goal isn't to get people to seriously consider it, it's to just give them a knee-jerk reaction of "this is an evil Chinese lie!"