Speech Service throwing Exception

Question

Im new to azure and xamarin mobile. I went through the first quickstart for speech services, and the app always throws this exception:

Exception: System.DllNotFoundException: libMicrosoft.CognitiveServices.Speech.core.soassembly:<unknown assembly> type: <unknown type> member: (null) at (wrapper managed-to-native) 
Microsoft.CognitiveServices.Speech.Internal.SpeechConfig.speech 

I interpret this as the assembly is not able to determine the Type because the member is null, but I have no clue what to do with that.

Im currently in China, and Ive tried api keys and location from both Azure Global and Azure China - only to get this exception.

Im not sure if this could be happening because my Azure China api key is not full functional, or if Im getting blocked while being in China, or something else.