I haven't specifically asked, but I do remember the question popping up to the G6 team when the Chinese version was first released. If I remember correctly, they said that because of the different market structures, the regions were priced at different levels. Thus, if they allowed people to convert from Chinese->English, people could buy the Chinese version at lower prices, and accomplish the same thing as those that purchased the pricier English version.
I don't think there's anything different about the structure of the devices beyond disallowing using firmware from other regions. I would guess someone could hack the device to override that function, but I'm not sure it's worth the effort.
