It's because they don't know anything about China and fears rise of China, so any half believable rumours feed into that narrative.Interesting news report in Western media,at least 20 newspapers and digital media outlets are stating the story about eviction of Indian troops from Ladakh by PLA,any comments?
It's funny because they don't actually worry about the areas where China may legitimately be ahead, like railguns, antiship ballistic missiles, etc and brush them off with "well it's made in China, probably won't work after 5 minutes" yet they treat such rumours as if it's 100% true and fearmonger about China having a death ray.
I still reckon Jin deliberately spread that rumour as deception.