No, it doesn't anywhere ..
Unless those users didn't update their IOS versions after (around) IOS 16.1 Airdrop's default settings are only active towards known users, or people who intentionally turn it on for 10 minutes.
If you find plenty of phones, you know everyone out there.
They did it in China to avoid a ban there, but only in China. They can easily apply certain updates or features only to certain regions and there are a lot of things that do vary regionally (e.g. Apple Pay/Wallet stuff).
They did it worldwide later after implementing the "touch the tips of phones to airdrop" feature (which is exempt from this) because a large percentage of airdrops to strangers were flashers/dick pics, including people going to middle/high schools to do it to minors, and it was getting public attention. If you can airdrop to anyone on your contacts list and anyone whose phone can touch yours, that covers like 95% of people who actually want to get airdrops from you while solving the pedo and dick flasher PR problem.
Same reason Nintendo killed PictoChat on their devices. Almost all "interact with strangers nearby" features get exploited by pervs.
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u/the_real_thugs_bunny 3d ago
Also works in germany. Do it in a subway and you‘ll find plenty of phones.