In most of the developed world, torrenting is illegal, and that never happens, right?
People with fancy suits and fancier titles like to utter grandiose declarations. You can choose whether or not to care.
Apples and oranges.
I don't think you realize the strength the Chinese government has in China and how quickly and how hard they can crack down on something and how common it is for most citizens in China to know to dare not challenge it.
In America we can speak out against anti piracy laws and torrents, we can hold massive protests if we wanted to. We can call in and flood congress with our views and desires. In China you can't.
In China they can and do arrest/torture/and kill people for going against the government. It would be all to easy for the govenrmetn in China to say bitcoins undermines the government and throw someone in prison for life or worse if they engage in bitcoin. And you know what, most Chinese people would have no choice but to accept that due to the fact that few people want to risk those type of punishments.
I concede my lack of domain knowledge pertaining to the Chinese government's actual power inside their country. That said, they are neither omnipotent or omniscient - cracks exist, and they will be found. Passionate individuals will find ways around limitations. This may limit adoption, perhaps even severely, but it cannot completely stop it - and if the rest of the world accepts Bitcoin, China's hand will be forced, or economic damage of unimaginable magnitude will ensue.
it's possible some day, that's a very long ways away though. Decades perhaps.
First before we focus on something like China we should probably fix the problems bitcoin in general has now. Like lack of security and stability. Bitcoin will never be this utopia global "currency" until even the most basic problems are fixed and that might still be quite aways away and it's not inconceivable that it won't even be bitcoin that is the winner, but something else that comes along.
When and once that happens then maybe we can talk about "passionate inviduals" willing to lose their life , their careers, their family , basically everything, to fight for something like bitcoin. China and Chinese civilians have a lot bigger and more serious issues to deal with, I don't see bitcoin coming into the picture for at least a decade or more if bitcoin is even the main player by then.
Don't mistake me for an idealist. My point is simply that China's government has limits. Note also that there's a significant difference between advocating for Bitcoin and merely using it.
And I completely agree: Bitcoin has problems; quite a few serious ones. However, I strongly suspect that if we fix those, with a bit of luck and a bit of time, the China problem may well fix itself.