Puzzled by English approximation of pinyin<x>
I've been hearing more and more Americans (can't say for Brits or other native English speakers) approximate pinyin <x> (as in Xi Jinping or Liu Cixin) as /ʒ/. Obviously, as the /ɕ/ sound doesn't exist in English, it has to be approximated but one would expect something that sounds a bit closer (and at least a voiceless consonant) like /s/ or /ʃ/ or something calqued on English approximations of Spanish x, which Americans are more familiar with (/h/ instead of /x/ or /χ/). In the latter case, it would be wrong, but there would be some logic behind it. I fail to see how /ʒ/ came to be the go-to approximation. Does anyone know why and when that happened? Does Brits, Canadians, Kiwis and Aussies also use /ʒ/ or something else entirely? Thanks in advance!