isn't it the same with most of other countries too? not to mention with most of the people around here!
people see bitcoin as investment since it continue going up and giving them profit.
governments see it as investment because it is easier to tax it that way and their revenue could be higher.
i don't think it is specific to Chinese.

i don't think it has anything to do with what their government thinks!
mining requires a couple of things to be more profitable in a competing market. first is the electricity cost, which is quite low in many parts of China specially when these farms struck special deals with their electricity provider. the next is the cheap and easy access to equipment. again they can acquire it easily from Bitmain and fast, maybe even cheaper. another factor is climate, i have seen farms that go in places with lower temperatures which would reduce their cost for cooling and increase their revenue. and finally the cost of labor can be much smaller which is another reduced cost. all of this leads to higher profitability.