I'm pretty positive that is does have EDGE by default. If you go to the Motorola web site in China, they have 2 models of the Ming. One says A1200 and the other says A1200 EDGE. I don't speak Chinese, so I can't tell you all the specs, but you can check it out for yourself.
http://www.motorola.com.cn/a1200e/specifications.asp
For some reason, on my computer, the word "EDGE" is not written in Chinese symbols, so it does not come up as questions marks.
Can anyone who speaks Chinese confirm this?
Also, I have no idea how long they've had this phone. Could be old news. I for one, have no idea.