I suspect this has everything to do with the mentality of the Chinese population. I mean they are eager to look into everything new and adopt it quickly. Look what happened in Japan and then multiply that by a factor of 10. Western civilizations are more conservative in this respect. People there trust their governments more on average, and they won't jump into cryptocurrencies head over heels. Therefore, the Chinese government rightfully fears this universal craze over cryptocurrencies. It is not like Bitcoin threatens the local economy directly, it is more via people losing a lot of money in various scams that will be the major cause of headaches and problems for the government there.