你说的没错，"Chinese"在文中是表达“中国人”的意思，但Chinese前不是省略了定冠词the，而是直接用名词Chinese作主语。表示泛指时的the Chinese中的Chinese是形容词而不是名词。Chinese作为可数名词表示“中国人”时，单复数形式是一样的。例如：

I'm a Chinese by origin.我是中国血统。《简明英汉词典》

Most Chinese preferred tea to coffee. 茶和咖啡相比大多数中国人更喜欢喝茶。《简明英汉词典》

（COCA）有很多这样的例句：

Chinese are naturally good at trade. 

Malay and Indian prisoners tortured and stated that three Chinese died after undergoing water torture.

Chinese are hyper-capitalists, and clannish in business. Jews have nothing on them here.

Chinese are following the path of the US, where the middle class in 1970 recognized that pollution was doing great harm and that clean air and water were worth quite a lot of expense. 

From birth, Chinese are taught to hate America and there is a video of them in elementary schools yelling, " Allah Akbar! "

▲有人认为the Chinese是“定冠词+名词复数”，表示“整体”。这是一种误解，其实the Chinese是“定冠词+形容词”构成的名词短语，形容词Chinese是这个名词短语中的中心词，所以有的词典将其整体作为“集合名词”。章振邦《新编英语语法》（1981版上册P.121）有如下说明：

.....同样地。与表示民族（或国籍）的形容词连用代表整个民族（或该国人）例如：

The Chinese have completely exploded the myth that China is poor in oil resources.

The Welsh are well known for their singing.

The French have long had trade relations with us.

表示民族（或国籍）的形容词与名词大部分都是以-ch或-sh结尾的。如果这类形容词与名词不同形，在表示一般、泛指时要用“the+形容词”或“零冠词+复数名词”形式；在表示个别、特指时，要用“the+名词”形式。例如：

The Welsh are well known for their singing. （表示一般、泛指）

Welshmen are well known for their singing.（表示一般、泛指）

The Welshmen I know sing well. （表示个别、特指）

在以上三句中，句1中的Welsh是形容词；句2中的Welshmen是名词，与形容词Welsh不同形（你的问题与此句类似，但名词Chinese与形容词Chinese同形）；句3中的Welshmen是名词。

夸克《英语语法大全》（P.578）中也有同样的说法：

5.56  类指的the与复数名词短语连用出现于两种特殊情况：国籍名词，即指一个国籍的、一个种族集团等的人民的名词短语。如：the Chinese, the English（参见7.25）

......

7.25  一些表示民族的形容词（参见5.56）可以作名词短语的中心词：

The industrious Dutch are admired by their neibours.

Your French and we British ought to be allies.

这样的形容词实际上只限于以-(i)sh和-ch结尾的词：

British, cornish, Danish, English, Irish, Spanish, Turkish,Welsh; Dutch, French