Interesting you mention this. I recall that somewhere in the past, someone made the rumour that Die Rise was originally intended to take place in Russia. I've never been able to retrieve this statement, neither on CoDZ Forum nor on its Discord server. Rumour could be untrue of course, but I'm certain someone once mentioned it.
In the Die Rise quotes, there is an unused Stuhlinger quote referring to Russia:
"Ah, Russia" - gripe_russia_d_0
Just that. But it is interesting since it is unused, may support the rumour. When looking at the inspirational photo at the bottom right of the Die Rise early version, do you have any idea what/where this is? Reminds me a bit of the Moscow metro, although that wouldnt make sense in a skyscraper map.
There is also Russian writing on some bio tanks found in Die Rise, although the writing is reused from Ascension and can also be found in Tranzit, so I suppose it doesn't necessarily confirm that Die Rise was originally in a Russian city.
And lastly, if the rumour would be true, what made the developers to change it to China?