China never needed mad English. Chinese people just need some English. I think most likely this fellow just took advantage of this "need some" and turned it into "madness". With or without his work, the English level of Chinese citizens should be about the same. Or, if he did help, the difference he made must be far too small when compared with his personal gain. That is, there is vast disproportionality between his true contribution and his personal gain: super rich and super famous.
So, I think the true factors leading to his later failure were not issues with EQ or whatever Q, but that, he is just not so good a person. A good enough person just shouldn't be expected to be willing to create that kind of madness in the masses for his own gains.
Same with Trump and other famous or not so famous 忽悠 .
