Localities get a lot of autonomy in China. The central government generally issues guidelines and only steps in directly in cases of national interest, like with organizing the economy, which is part of why Chinese people when polled tend to have a higher opinion of the national government than they do their local government. It also means that foreign press can cherry pick moments where a local government does something bad while simply never reporting on the things that they do that are cool to paint a certain picture of China.