The CFA brought in foreign refs for the last few weeks of their season from UEFA and CONCACAF. The MLS refs so far have been American Ted Unkel and Canadian Dave Gantar. They only brought in centers and not the entire crew.
From what I've read it's a combination of referee quality and the problems with match-fixing that China has dealt with. They've invested a lot of money trying to become a more prominent league in the football world.
The foreign referees they have brought in so far are: Jonas Eriksson (SWE) (Assistants: Mathias Klasenius (SWE), Daniel Wärnmark (SWE)) Tony Chapron (FRA) (2 matches) Drew Fischer (CAN) (Assistant: Eduard Beitinger (GER)) Deniz Aytekin (GER) (Assistant: Eduard Beitinger (GER) (again)) Pavel Kralovec (CZE) (Assistants: Martin Wilczek (CZE), Ivo Nadvornik (CZE)) Ted Unkel (USA) Viktor Kassai (HUN) (Assistants: Gyorgy Ring (HUN), Vencel Toth (HUN))
Foreign referees for the final round of the league: Dave Gantar (CAN) Muhammad Taqi Aljaafari Bin Jahari (SGP) Viktor Kassai (HUN) (Assistants: Gyorgy Ring (HUN), Vencel Toth (HUN))
Wow, looks like Ted Unkel is getting the center for the Chinese FA Cup final which is also a Shanghai derby! The rest of the crew is Chinese.
Referee: Ted Unkel (United States) Assistant referees: Song Xiangyun (Dalian FA) Cao Yi (Henan FA) Fourth official: Ai Kun (Beijing Sport University)
Looks like Unkel had a fun game. Had a goal disallowed for a brilliant Offside Call IMO, a spot-on penalty kick call, and a send-off. The bottom half Shanghai Shenhua was able to win on away goals over 2nd place SIPG even after almost 10 minutes of stoppage time in the 2nd half!
Highlights here: It is very difficult to tell given the camera angles and the limited replay of the mass confrontation, but it seems possible the 2CT to #23 was actually meant for #33 (as #33 was the one who provoked the larger mass con). There could, of course, been something else #23 did off-camera, so it's impossible to say that definitively.