I don't think that author's statement is accurate. The opposite of individualism (个人主义) is collectivism (集体主义). Individualism becomes a bad word in China only because of the ruling of the Communist party. Because the Communists are absolutely collectivists and totally against individual thinking and actions, so they call lots of bad things on individualism. Selfishness is just one of them.
However, the communist China is not the same as China. Chinese communists are not the same as Chinese. When people talk about Chinese cultural, usually they mean Confucianism, which is obviously not Communism.
Under Confucianism, it is true that the family, community, and the state is important, but it never says anything indicating that individual means nothing. Actually the moral value of individuals is important in Confucianism. In a corrupted system, maintaining your own moral value , holding on to your belief, and not letting the environment corrupt you is called 独善其身. Is this a form of individualism? No Confucian will ever tell you just blindly follow the leader, or do what ever the leader tell you to do, or always sacrifice yourself for the good of the group.
For more details, you can read:
So, no, in Chinese individualism does not mean selfishness, if you can differentiate the Communist China from China.