Also wondering if there is any other way to avoid paying this upcharge on miners from China, thanks for any advice.
Do what I and some others here do and have your miners shipped to a hosting facility outside the USA.
No connections...and I know some guys that did so with such in Russia who don't even have a sack of rocks to show for it.
There are some Chinese American's that speak the language and are on top of such for China Miners there..but 'alas' don't have the connections
to trust/verifiy and send BTC to such.
