Your point reads strangely, it's almost like saying "Why even bother when CO2 emissions are so high" - surely ANYTHING that they are doing to turn that around should be celebrated and encouraged rather than saying "Yeah but..." - Rome wasn't built in a day and all.
The Op said: "we're the baddies" when discussing an article about China, implying that we (whoever that is) are worse than China because they added lots of trees. That's a clear and obvious nod to the "are we the baddies" skit about a couple Nazi soldiers slowly realizing they're the bad guys. It's also very fashionable in this moment to self-flagellate beyond any reasonable level.
I'm saying: perhaps we shouldn't be giving that country such acclaims when in addition to adding lots of trees, they're also burning an absolutely colossal amount of carbon just with their coal use alone. Two things can be true at the same time, and we can be even handed in our appraisals.
Your take is uncharitable and inaccurate.