I have a few points here......you may or may not like.

---Foreigners may one day banned from obtaining a Chinese motorcycle licence, this is a nanny state after all. Seeking to protect us from ourselves, this is because 99.9% of Chinese people as Carl says, view motorcycles as a cheap means of getting from A to B, they think of electric bicycles mostly in the same way as motorcycles. This is changing as there is more western/Hong Kong/Taiwanese/Korean influence on them. At the moment they are having a love affair with the car.

The hardcore few Chinese that do have good bikes in my area have illegally imported big Hong Kong bikes, they typically have no registration, licence, and many might wear a cool jacket but no helmet.

Why do people break the law on mass?

China has so many laws and a huge population, it can only enforce so many laws effectively at one time, so due to resources it is forced to do purges. The purges these days are the most lucrative ones so they target cars and trucks.

I'm an evil foreigner without a Chinese license, am I ruining this for everyone?

I have already passed a motorcycle test in Europe, and have satisfied those authorities from Poland to Portugal, Finland to France that I am a competent rider. Why really should I go out of my way and spend a hefty amount of cash to satisfy the most incompetent drivers in the world? I know this is arrogant, but I don't really care. Why should I attempt to obtain a licence when 90% of the locals in my area have no helmet, real registration plates and no insurance or license?

If I lived in a bigger city such as Shanghai or Beijing I would feel differently about this and would have a licence...probably.