In China , they are still in early last century , so they believe that people`s learning is directly proporcional to the punishment applied.
Regs state that a PIC should declare an emergency fuel everytime they are already below minimuns or when they believe he will be below minimuns as he gets the field.
The chinese ATC is so bad that sometimes is impossible to understand what is the sequence , or what is the next ATC`s move. In this cenario , declaring an emergency is a very preventive action against chinese ATC imagination and a way to guarantee that you will land within legal limits.
It`s important to remember that whatever happens , just in a very very clear mistake they (chinese) will admit their ATC is bad , messy and they are very poor in english as long as something goes out of the standards.
I work in china and for sure they are already preparing something no sense against the foreign pilots. Something like CAAC checks , etc.
They become histeric when something happens. Indeed ,I strongly believe they will finally como to the conclusion that flying is too dangerous and they will return to trains, cars and waggons.