Without this getting into a rant about china's situation or economy. . . It actually does have everything to do with marketing. You can have clients in foreign jurisdictions but you can't market/solicit them without being registered in some jurisdictions. I've spoken to clients living in China despite my firm not being registered in China. Same with alot of other jurisdictions also (USA, U.K., EU) etc.
In years past, U.S. financial firms, when doing business overseas, largely concerned themselves with the question, Does the firm need to be registered in the countries where it has clients? Historically, if the firm had no bricks and mortar in a foreign country, the investor had a high net worth, or it could be shown that the customer was not solicited for securities transactions (but instead had reached out to the U.S. firm), then the issue of registration was/is considered resolved.