Culture differs. That's why it's called culture. We often think Chinese products are cheap and below standards. And many of the export products indeed are of less quality.
Chinese population is diverse, as diverse of any other population in the world. Except the 'one percent' in China is about 15 million people. So there is a large amount of Chinese that do have money to burn.
But here comes the culture in again. This above class of Chinese has the habit to prefer long term business investments rather than making a quick buck. They'd buy land or buildings, in the first place not to get direct turnover through rental or commercializing them. They buy them for the children of their grandchildren. While building they will choose for over engineered structure, and skim big time on the finishing.
What has this to do with iTunes? I have quite some Chinese acquaintances and most of them got their iPhones as 'presents' from some family member. Of course their new gadget is not quite the long term investment their parents had in mind. Culture and customs do change but it'll need a 180 degrees turn before these new owners would swipe the plastic to buy content for it.
The iPhone is a status symbol and nobody sees whether you have a large portfolio of paid content on it. There's a lot of free apps and the pirate appstores will thrive as never seen before.
I do admit above point of view is just how I see it. By no means I pretend that I know better than any other person on this forum or beyond.
One thing is for sure though. The more Chinese iPhone users, the quicker we'll see new jailbreaks. Much quicker than before.
