The problem with your scenario is that the Chinese government didn't have a covid vaccine mandate in October of '21 (when Blow's tweet was published).
Their covid vaccine program was voluntary up until they tried to establish a mandate in July of '22 (a lot of commentators seem to be confused on this point, as there are mandates for childhood vaccines in China - but these never extended to covid vaccines)
Maybe not for everybody, but I recall hearing that certain military units, students, and government officials were required to get covid vaccinations already in '20. Maybe he heard the same thing?