David, the problem is the rules are not consistently enforced. We know a French guy who bought a stolen (from HK) Suzuki Gixxer 600 in Shanghai, no license, plates, insurance........nothing. He was welcomed onto the freeway towards Beijing for free by traffic police, go figure! Another guy had a motorcycle license and a car license but rode out of class with a three-wheeler in Shanghai and ended up in a detention center.

My opinion is outside of a big city you're 95% safe....unless you have an accident, particularly with an ebike, bicycle or pedestrian you could have a bad day.

So on this site we have a real problem giving advice. Do we tell people to break the law, or do we hit them with the rule book as it's written? Sucks but that's how it is.