This particular paper was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, along with various other Chinese organizations. China's biology/biotech research is top-tier, these days, and the Chinese government actively funds quite a lot of basic research in the life sciences. Interestingly, very little of it seems to translate to in-country pharmaceutical development.
When was the last time you heard of a Chinese pharmaceutical company with a novel, non-generic product?
Sure, the Chinese make existing drugs and APIs. They're probably the world leaders in generic peptide production. They also do a lot of basic research. What is lacking -- what is proportionately small -- is their share of innovative new drugs developed. This is slowly changing, but the Chinese are way behind in drug development and commercialization. That's what I meant.
Open a journal, sample a bunch of articles. Usually, there's an acknowledgement (sometimes in the first footnote) with the program that funded the research. If there is none, it's possibly a regular, university funded project, in which case you'd have to look up the uni's funding.