I don't shy away from conspiracy like theories since Snowden. Anyways, in a troubled country like China with many poor, kept ignorant, and bathed in pollution, a way to lift money without a connection to government may be desirable.
The reality of the world is that it is a complex place, and things happen for complex reasons. Any attempt to put phenomena into a nutshell, be it an 'official version of events' or a 'conspiracy theory' is going to have shortfalls.
However, anyone with any kind of political noose can recognise that there are 'tendencies' in the world and often a simplified hypothesis can be useful in allowing the mind to get a handle on such a 'tendency'.
I found your opening post to offer a useful hypothesis.
If this was shady businessmen pumping and dumping a penny stock, the fraud squad would be on the case.