So, four players on this roster were granted an exemption despite not fulfilling the IIHF's naturalization rules: Parker Foo, Ty Schultz, Ethan Werek and Jeremy Smith. The first two had not represented another country before and thus were applicable to the two-year rule, but have only played a full season and a half in a Chinese club, while the latter two had represented Canada and USA in junior tournaments and thus should have been applicable to the four-year rule, but were granted an exemption with merely two and a half seasons of play.
If you ask me, granting an exemption for the first two is fine, as they're falling only a couple of months short. But the federation should have told the Chinese to get bent in the case of Werek and Smith. Do they even have Chinese heritage?