Visa for Sri Lankan Living in Kula Lumpur

I'm a Sri Lankan living in Kula Lumpur and I have a invited by the Chinese Academy of Sciences to attend a conference in Beijing at the end of this month. I'm currently a student Malaysia and the university will fund me for the total expenses and I have a letter from the university administration proving that. When I went to the visa office they ased me to show a large some (by my standards) of money to accept the application for processing even though I showed the funding letter from the university and all the other necessary documents. Is there any specific reason for this type of request since I'm not going to spend a cent of my money in China?