I don't know "Chinese culture is very competitive" compared to others. It may be the long tail you are seeing from the large population. As I mentioned earlier

I don't know "Chinese culture is very competitive" compared to others. It may be the long tail you are seeing from the large population. As I mentioned earlier, China is very relation based and Chinese themselves know that. To counter that performance evaluation tends to be very quantified. You could say there is a number fetish. College admission used to be based on one score. Introducing flexibility causes a lot of anxiety about "hou men" (backdoor or favoritism). GDP growth needs to be above 6.5%. I just read a policeman commenting that they have numerical targets for the number of arrests they make. Anyway because of the emphasis on relationship there is actually a heavy price to pay if you are thought of a cheater in private social networks. It is another story though dealing with strangers/abstract public interests/intrusive governments so there is a degree of split personality there. My son is graduating from a US high school this year. He is an academic star. On his brag sheet he lists what he is most proud of himself as doing all his work honestly. Not all those academic achievements that he worked hard for. It goes to show what he thinks of academic honesty here. It does not make him like his classmates less though. It does not make me think cheating endemic to the US either. There is always grayness. I am proud of his integrity but I wouldn't automatically think a lot less of a kid because he cuts some corners once in a while.