What would people face in china if they buy crypto ?
nothing,there is no law or even a newwspaper article that forbids people to trade or buy cryptocurrencies
it is the banks and the trading platforms such as exchanges that are targeted
if you cannot convert or sell/buy cryptocurrency,you will not be using it,so there is no reason to punish common folks
it is much easier and effective to ban exchanges and banks from dealing with it
and then punish those that do not comply
So it means that china users can do bitcoin work and save it , so that in future if the local exchanges start to take bitcoin trading then that time they can trade with bitcoin what they are holding it.