@Mugiwara_no_Ice:
Because they got brains. Greek bonds are basically for free now and when the situation gets back to normal they'll have a ton of profit. Of course if the whole European economy collapses they'll end up with empty hands, but you'd have to be a crazy doom-thinker to be speculating on that.
No, not really this. China has been very systematic when investing, and had their only goal been capital gain, they would have invested the money in something else with higher yields; the Greek government bonds are risky after all. Even with fixed interest rates. (~70% of them bonds)
Just to make sure: you don't have to be a doom-thinker or even believe Greece will have to restructure it's debt to see that Greece's credit rating, according Standard&Poor's, is the worst there is in the world. Check
Sure, we shall never forget the golden rule of investing, buy low sell high. But we can't really overlook all the other facts, can we? The value of the investment is not always based on the possible capital gain.
And I still think that
@bazooka:
Europe is still the biggest market China has, and the collapse of the euro would threaten China's export industry. Especially now that the inflation rate in China is above 5% (was about 5.5% in may if my memory serves me right) and growth rate of their GDP has decreased (OMG it' only ~9% now) and they still have this possible housing bubble ahead and whatnot… Another global recession is the last thing they need in the current situation. China can't afford to let the euro collapse for purely selfish reasons.
China has also invested in Spanish and Portuguese government bonds for the very same reason.