I think such articles still have contributions.
I find the popular statistical topics in China is generally outdated than US. Topics like multivariate analysis, nonparametrics used to be hot 10 years ago, but nowadays the cutting edge focuses on sparse data analysis. Techniques such as variable selection, FDR (false discovery ratio), random matrix have been developing rapidly recently, and it is very helpful if some one can introduce such techniques to the general audience. I am sure they will be popular in China in a few years.
LASSO is a very good topic in such areas, and I am very willing to see if the author can incorporate more interpretation using R.
