"As I mentioned upthread, a Chinese bank account is very useful for both Alipay and Tencent Pay (Wechat), but not essential because other people can juice you."
As pointed out a number of times here in other threads, you cannot enable QR-code payments without identifying yourself using a Chinese bank account. That is, you do need a Chinese bank account to use wechat and alipay for those payments. (There may be some recent exceptions for HK people, I'm not sure.)
Got you. A few months ago, an FTer told me that he was unable to open a bank account because he didn't have an RP. This was news to me because I previously opened many Chinese bank accounts without an RP. Since I have an RP, I can no longer provide a litmus test function for non-RP people, but the OP's minor is unlikely to score an RP (i.e. this process is pretty difficult now).
ETA: While off topic, I want to implore all RP holders to sign up for e channel. I managed to pull off the Shenzhen Bay border crossing in 6 minutes last week (this can take up to one hour).