Well I see what all the fuss is about now. This is hard science fiction in the vein of the golden era, where big ideas trump characterisation or intricate plotting which is somewhat out of fashion these days. The translation seems to lean into this, and it reminds me of Kafka, especially early on where we have a protagonist that is completely baffled by the events happening to him. I happened to watch Adam Curtis' "Can't get you out of my head" while I was reading this (which also focuses on China as one of its themes) and found that his flat narration fits this book quite well.
What the book does very well is explore big cosmic ideas and to mash concepts and technologies from disparate field together to tell an interesting variation on the alien invasion trope. It has a religious devotion to the role of science which may well be the appeal for some readers. I found few of the characters seemed particularly humane even given their circumstances: Wang abandons his wife and child for days, Shi is a brutal maverick and Ye dooms humanity out of spite. This might support the tone of the book but the lack of any significant counterpoint makes it a bit of a drag.
I'm interested enough to see where he takes the rest of the series but if this is the only recent Sci-Fi you've read your missing out on a real renaissance that this book does not reflect.