Not that I approve of China's approach here, but the use of the word "cells" in the title is blatant scaremongering. Consider a hypothetical title like "The Democratic Party Is Setting Up Cells in Alabama" and it becomes more obvious.
On one level I agree with you -- it's reminiscent of a recent laughable New Yorker piece calling the presence of a Chick-fil-A in NYC an "infiltration": https://www.newyorker.com/culture/annals-of-gastronomy/chick...
On the other hand, the presence of a domestic political party is a fundamentally different thing from the presence of a foreign entity working inside a sovereign entity like a state. Both the Republican and Democratic parties at least claim loyalty to the American people and its government and alignment with their interests.