As an American expat living in China and currently applying to grad schools for neuroscience research, I'll give my own personal anecdote. I considered applyin

As an American expat living in China and currently applying to grad schools for neuroscience research, I'll give my own personal anecdote. I considered applying to grad schools here, especially since some Chinese schools are quite highly ranked. Whenever I walk past Starbacks (not a typo) on my way to work, I'm reminded that there's very little respect for IP outside of China. I worry that if I ever came across promising research, someone else would take credit for it and I would be left with nothing. I'm friends with an American here who started a pretty successful restaurant selling Mexican food. He says that if a wealthy, prominent Chinese person liked his business, that person could start the exact same business across the street and then sue my friend for copying the business, and the Chinese person would win the lawsuit because my friend is a foreigner. In regards to the other things you said, air pollution is a thing but it wouldn't stop me from pursuing my career goals, and I expect it to get better. I think the standard of living here is pretty good (though that's mostly because most companies will pay foreigners a lot more than they'll pay locals, so your buying power is pretty high).