If he's going with a group plugged in enough to offer him a smartphone, then I suspect they'll be plugged in enough to be able to point him to a bank that'll open an account for him. So I wouldn'ty worry. Everyone knows that anyone spending time in China these days needs a bank account and access to Alipay/Wechat.

As for the phone, it's possible the phone they give him may work with a broader range of frequencies on data -- maybe 5G even -- so I wouldn't necessarily look that gift horse in the mouth.