In fact, the original trilogy only made its debut shortly before the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
The original Star Wars trilogy came out during a period when all western media was banned in China, and as such, the country simply doesn’t have the connection to the property that so many others do.
They had a Stormtrooper army march on the Great Wall of China before the release of Episode VII but that appears to have had only a marginal impact.
This means that while new movies in the series are all but guaranteed to be hits in most other countries, Disney has to actually make an effort to promote the movies in China.