Firstly, in Stainless Steel this is known as work hardening. What the article seems to claim is that by utilizing the principal of work hardening in strategic ways, that the malleability and ductility of the material can be improved.

Malleability is the deformation under compressive load. Ductility is deformation under tensile load. Work hardening can be described as a critical loss of ductility due to the material being deformed beyond it's plastic deformation threshold.

So the very nature of work hardening betrays the sentiment being portrayed by the research. Work hardened stainless is clearly understood to be less reliable, as it has already been "fatigued" beyond a critical threshold.

I hate to say this, but I personally believe that "Chinese metallurgy" is an oxymoron. The word "Chinesium" didn't come out of nowhere.