For how completely dirty a Chinese bathroom actually, there's enough fecal matter in the air that soap on your hands isn't really going to count.

I'm sure the reason they don't put soap in there is not because they are less afraid of germs, but because somewhere in some office, some careless bureaucrat can't be bothered to administer a fund for public soap, dispensers and toilet paper.

Honestly. How many Westerners wash their hands with soap after they use the bathroom? I guarantee you it's less than 50%.

I'm super happy when I can find a bathroom that has hot water in it. Soap is a double luxury. Triple if they have paper towels and toilet paper!

Mostly it's a cost saving measure I'd assume. Or someone puts on paper that they spend 500rmb a month for soap and it ends up in someone's pocket.

OR, it might be for the same reason most bathrooms don't have toilet paper or paper towels - people would just steal it. I think this is the most likely culprit. I have seen people at the airport in Shanghai Pudong (which does have liquid hand soap) filling small bottles with the bathroom dispenser. I know for toilet paper that is 100% of the reason. It's BYOTP or there is a dispenser that sells tissues for 1rmb because people will just take as much as they can carry if offered for free.

Those little alcohol hand sanitizers are perfect for this situation, I've given up expecting loo paper let alone soap, thats just pushing it

There are two different issues at hand, and they are:

1.- the lack of toilet paper, soap and toilet tissue or paper towels.
2.- the state of cleanliness.

As for the first one, I found the answer in a funny way. I had a friend (Chinese) to travel with me for a week in Hong Kong. After the first day, I noticed that after the maid made the room, there were no soap, shampoo, hand cream, toilet paper, etc in the bathroom. I called front desk and complained, they sent someone else with a supply. Later, my friend told me she had taken them and placed in her suitcase to use at home. I told her I could not care less what she did, but to do it just before the maid made the room, and to take the left overs, not take the new ones after the maid finished the room. She could not understand my reasoning, after all, it was given to us for free, she claimed. Well, at later times I confirmed that it is common practice here in China to take home anything not nailed down. If there is no attendand on WC (or thunderbox, as called in UK), there will be no supplies. I just carry in my pocket a supply of Kleenex and a small bottle of liquid soap and problem resolved.

Now, in regards to the second issue, I will say two things. One is their fear of flushing the toilets because it requires hand contact with lever and could catch a sickness, and also their total disregard of the one following them into the rest room.

The only thing that keeps me sane in China is a large and well used supply of hand sanitzers brought from home. I'm a germaphobe living in China...go figure...but you know what...I have not been sick yet (except for a nasty case of food poisoning). I use the stuff 30+ times a day.