Bitcoin successfully defeated China because Bitcoin is independent and China is just some entity that has no jurisdiction in cyber space. Nobody does and that's the beauty of BTC.
Yes, bitcoin is independent and really depends on the number of people who trusts it. Maybe some of the Chinese are still trading their coins or if not since Chinese was able to mine a lot of coins before and if they can't release it that only means that the supply of the coin in the market was decreased.
Chinese people think that bitcoin is their slave and its price is totally depending on them and when they banned the trades they think that it will die but it survives just because people have faith in it and there are many lives connected to it and bitcoin has ability to survive through such condition because it is independent of all the region it depend on people who invest and have faith in it,
Bitcoin is like a God gift for some people, Chinese people were thinking that bitcoin is not enough god and also bitcoin is dependent on china but it is not like that when they banned china they were thinking that bitcoin will die must but it survive only because people all over the world love bitcoin and they make their lives thorough bitcoin and due to their support now bitcoin is alive and popular.