true story:

back in the 90s, i had a bike in beijing with loose handlebars. whenever i parked the bike, i pushed the handlebars through the crossbar so that they hung lopsided and appeared broken.

the bike, of course, was also layered in several centimeters of beijing-class particulate matter and had collected miscellaneous garbage in its dented front basket.

i kept this bike in this condition unmolested for 2 years with only the standard red block back wheel lock to secure it from thieves.

then one day, i let an FOP frenchman borrow it for a ride to the summer palace with a gamely female student of his.

he "discovered" that the handlebars were loose early in his ride and so stopped to have them "fixed" both for his own safety and to do me a favor.

needless to say, the bike was stolen from the summer palace parking lot -- most likely before he'd even finished buying his admission ticket.

also, he did not get laid.

making old: what's new on this idea for china?

Making new bikes look old is common practice in my home city Amsterdam.
Amsterdam has 1 million bikes, and every year nearly 1 million bikes get stolen. You can do the maths. People buy spraying paint and try to make their new bikes look ugly. Other common options are buying locks for prices higher than the bike itself.

another way to do it is to simply drop the chain on the bike. That's how I usually do it on my cal state campus. Also park it next to a nicer looking bike helps too.