Link. It was a game of post office: “.. after The Onion published the spoof on 14 November, the story was picked up by the Hong-Kong based ifeng.com… A Chinese website, Yangzi Wanbao (Yangtse Evening Daily), published a shorter version of the story on the same day, citing ifeng.com …
Guangming Daily then carried the story on 26 November, quoting the Yangtse Evening Daily. The People’s Daily in turn published the story on 27 November, citing Guangming Daily as its source…”