It still applies. Those are robo-calls, which means they reach a large number of people. Similar to the Nigerian Prince email scams, the scammers are depending on most people dismissing them as scams because the scammers don't want to waste their time with people who they have no chance of extracting money from. In this case, if you speak Chinese and you reply, the scammers have a high chance of scamming money from you—you're probably a new immigrant, either elderly or an exchange student, and unfamiliar with local laws and the English language. The same scam would never work in China.
