Let's forget completely about the political stuff for a moment. I'm talking about outright fraud, a poor business environment, laughably ineffective courts, etc. The Chinese have elevated cheating (bonus points if the victim is foreign) to an art form. Contracts are broken with impunity, poor quality parts are often substituted after the deal is done, etc. The local "partner" needs only to grease a couple of government palms and "the foreign partner" is effectively mired in red tape for years with little hope of restitution. Been there, done that, seen it a hundred times.

I lived and worked in China for a number of years and speak fairly fluent Mandarin as well as a good bit of Cantonese. There is NO WAY I'd advise a foreign company to do business there, especially if predictable quality and accountability from your business partners is important to them. There are other countries with much more sane/reliable business environments that also have inexpensive labor (if that's your thing).

Now back to the political side. Their government is abhorrent, capricious, and very corrupt. Corruption is EVERYWHERE. I'm unconvinced that the old argument that "give 'em a taste of capitalism and they'll come around" is going to work. I just don't see it. There is this "mei ban fa" mentality that the place has always been corrupt, the government has always sucked and that's just the way it is. The average guy on the street knows it's bad, but just doesn't care. I doubt we'll see a peaceful transition to anything resembling a democratic system within most of our lifetimes. But when change comes, it will come with a sudden lurch. I wouldn't want to be around when it happens. It will get very very ugly. The people in power have absolutely no qualms about turning the army on the people to maintain power. Fasten your seatbelts.

Best,