Socialism

I had not noticed that you had already found the original source and I was trying to find it myself. I stumbled upon the image being used by Nature, here.

Nature is a very respected publisher. Even if they are not the original source of the image, I do think that them using this image as the main image in their COVID article can be used to support the original claim of the post.

Personally, I am inclined to think that the image was chosen because the authors thought that it "fit" the piece and not because of them being consciously part of a coordinated effort to make China look a particular way. But it is also true that they might have found it fitting in part due to the unconscious biases that they have collected over time - and the coordinated effort to make China look that way may have contributed. It can also be argued that a similar piece for any other country would feature an image with a similar feel because it matches the topic... Too many variables, it is hard to draw strong conclusions from this.