I like your theory!
But realistically, it's just wealthy Chinese investing. I invested some for some Chinese businessmen back in the 50s after the April crash. Then Baidu announced accepting BTC, getting the ball rolling -plus free trading at BTCChina, people put money in to trade, pushing up the price, causing a mania - Asians love this type of stuff.
To play devils advocate, the government in china is pretty much controlled by the same rich businessmen. Is it not in their interest to have the chinese government pushing up the value of their investments.