Backdoors, backdoors for everyone.

https://www.antbleed.com/

I have this uneasy feeling that for China, Bitcoin is a weapon of mass [financial] destruction.

You are seeing it as an American. Many Chinese government officials feel the same way as you, except that they think the weapon is pointed at them.

Considering the sheer computing (hashing) power they command internally (mining operations) as well as externally (specialized devices like Antminer), it's more likely that they are in control.

You think "they" are the Chinese government? That's... very much not correct. China's history in "regulating" cryptocurrency is something I think you should research and see what threat it poses their pegged currency markets and restrictions on the population in trading money; restrictions that very much Americans do not have.

We are free to trade Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, or exchange USD for pretty much any other currency in the world, and most goods/services. Chinese citizens are, well, not.

Bitcoin is not something a free economy with mostly free trade fears. It is something a controlled, planned market very much fears.

To be fair, all the established governments think that way.

The ability to print money and collect tax is the cornerstone of political power.

The cryptocurrencies attack those foundations and, thus, are going to be prevented from becoming mainstream.

This was "fixed" by the high tech workaround solution of:

    echo “127.0.0.1     auth.minerlink.com” >> /etc/hosts

https://blog.bitmain.com/en/antminer-firmware-update-april-2...