I'm guessing these relatives are tired of being accused of being part of a CIA-led psyops against CCP, and they believe a chinese ID will help them sound more credible. When you're desperate enough you hold onto every tiny detail you can think of.
That's not what i meant. A lot of nationalists, sovereignists and other authoritarian people in the Global North are sympathetic to the Chinese government, whose strong rule is seen as a good thing. These are usually the same people admiring Erdogan, Putin or Assad, getting their news from the same neo-fascist networks.
These people are usually very quick to dismiss talks of "ethnic cleansing" against Falun Gong or Uyghur, implying such reports are imperialist propaganda manufactured by western governments to make China look bad.
Most Nation States across the globe have a strong history of colonization, ethnic cleansing and repressive policing. It's important to recognize that in order to understand how the modern world operates. I'm not trying to imply that France (my own country) is any better... hell France has been innovating in prejudice science for centuries, and has been exporting their "counter-insurrection" (read: mass manipulation and bloodshed) techniques since the 60s.