Take On China Inc. At Your Peril, page-108

Ejwalk.
I think you may be right. I was reading an article the other day interviewing a senior lawyer (western) with experience in these matters and his advice was to not make it political, don't demand the Australian give intervene, and move to get bail but without restrictions on movement in and out of the country. Most of the time, the local arresting authorities don't want to go through the drama, and are much happier just collecting the bail when the accused doesn't subsequently front up.
I notice that none of the high ranking Chinese officials have made any statement on these matters, so it still seems to be being managed (officially at least) at local level.