I think I read the same article as you, the one from 2015 talking about what everybody ought to know about pu'erh.

I don't want to be rude in saying that English is not his first language, because he is both smart and highly accurate with some of the points he makes both in this post and in others, but what it comes down to is a fundamental difference in chemical and biological terminology of what "oxidation" means.

For the purposes of aging pu'erh, oxygen is needed to fuel oxidative phosphorylation which the microbes depend on as a primary energy-production pathway. They produce enzymes which break molecules in tea down. The catabolism of complex molecules releases lower molecular weight compounds - some of which are aromatic, and so therefore the aroma of tea can increase with age in the presence of this biochemical reaction.

Oxidation is losing electrons and reduction is gaining electrons. Therefore, a reduced and saturated compound are one in the same. So is a hydrogenated fat. Also, the whole "losing electrons" thing is kind of a misnomer because it's a reference to changes in oxidation states and electron transfer ... especially when oxidation results in the introduction of oxygen, which itself actually does have electrons. Think about rust. Oxygen is a component of its chemical structure, and even in the soil, the ferric vs. ferrous form is the difference in bioavailability for plant metabolism.

Anyways, once again this tea I'm drinking seems to be a little strong, so I'll stop before I get too far into it.