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> I work with a lot of folks from China and they (...) What you say represents about 50% of Chinese researchers in my lab. Those that immediately return to th

> I work with a lot of folks from China and they (...) What you say represents about 50% of Chinese researchers in my lab. Those that immediately return to their country after the PhD and you never hear from them again. The other 50% are the complete opposite: they cannot wait to get their family out of the country and never look back, explaining that the country is ruled by a bunch of crazy psycopaths. Curiously enough, there's almost no interaction between both groups, they politely ignore each other (and they are really polite and professional towards everybody also).

yellowcake0 6y ago
The question is, are their psychopaths crazier than our psychopaths.
- enriquto 6y ago
  I politely refuse to partake in this kind of questions :)
- api 6y ago
  Maybe, maybe not, but our psychopaths are restrained by a government designed to be inefficient and to frustrate tyrants. We just had an attempted fascist coup in the USA and it failed hilariously. The swamp is a good thing. It’s there to bog down tyrants in mud. Efficient government is dangerous.
  - m0rti 6y ago
    Even though I agree with what you said in terms of internal politics, I think when it comes to geopolitics, things start to get much uglier and multiple times more cruel. And since this topic is about foreign politics, I don’t think the US is any better than China. An American might think different, but I’m not one.
    - api 6y ago
      The US is better than China internally, but I mostly agree that China is not substantially worse than the US in terms of foreign policy.
  - yellowcake0 6y ago
    My intention was to point out the irony of Chinese nationals wanting to immigrate to the US, ostensibly because China is ruled by a bunch of "crazy psychopaths". When the reality is that the US is also run, at least in part, by a bunch of crazy psychopaths. But my point was not well taken.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
agumonkey 6y ago
Once upon a time I used to spend way to much time on Omegle (worldwide random 1:1 chat). Once a chinese girl was online, we chat about our countries, I explain how much I like china as a kid for martial arts, food, aesthetics, it was friendly and casual (chinese people on omegle often expressed worries about the value of their country, I wanted to make her feel at ease). Quickly though she started to say it's not all rosey, rules are strict, internet firewall.. suddenly she stopped talking. She typed a bunch of omg omg omg i shouldn't have said that omg sorry disconnect. It was nothing yet I felt fear in her behavior. All that for expressing very mild discontent about her country. First time I ever felt the impact of politicians on people's mind.. also a 'freedom of speech' felt different after that.
- koheripbal 6y ago
  This thread is nothing but personal anecdotes.
  - agumonkey 6y ago
    So, with enough anecdotes we'll reach statistical significance
    - koheripbal 6y ago
      No, because anecdotes suffer from sample bias since they are self-reported.
      - agumonkey 6y ago
        You fail to see the 12 month of 24/7 presence on this site and interaction with all countries. To hell with stats.
archibaldJ 6y ago
It's ultimiately a matter of dependency i.e. econmically well-off Chinese people who have dependencies with CCP (e.g. official party member (6.6% of the population), or owning a family business that interfaces with CCP, even if unofficially, etc), V.S. well-off Chinese with little or no dependencies. To be where they are now (outside of China receiving education, etc), the former group (or their parents/relatives) fought hard to get benefits from their relationship with CCP, while the later group (or their parents/relatives) fought hard to find a path out of this CCP madness. And thus the contrast. My grandfather was a minister and a proud CCP member. But he was the type who believes in doing the moral things and never took bribe. He worked crazy hours and get paid penauts. Most of my relatives saw him as foolish because he basically didn't fight to "get benefits from his relationship with CCP" and stayed poor for all his life. And most of his colleagues and superordinates don't like him because you can't help one another to climb the rank (or generate wealth) like this.
- john4532452 6y ago
  Thanks for this post. Every support or opposition towards authority boils down to economic incentives. Glad to hear from some one from the inside.
- chii 6y ago
  > And most of his colleagues and superordinates don't like him they don't like him not because of the ladder climb, but because him being a goody-two-shoe means that their corrupt activities are more likely to be shown as "wrong", and therefore, more risky for them. it's like being a good cop in a department where the other cops are bought and paid for.

yellowcake0 6y ago

The question is, are their psychopaths crazier than our psychopaths.

enriquto 6y ago
I politely refuse to partake in this kind of questions :)
api 6y ago
Maybe, maybe not, but our psychopaths are restrained by a government designed to be inefficient and to frustrate tyrants. We just had an attempted fascist coup in the USA and it failed hilariously. The swamp is a good thing. It’s there to bog down tyrants in mud. Efficient government is dangerous.
- m0rti 6y ago
  Even though I agree with what you said in terms of internal politics, I think when it comes to geopolitics, things start to get much uglier and multiple times more cruel. And since this topic is about foreign politics, I don’t think the US is any better than China. An American might think different, but I’m not one.
  - api 6y ago
    The US is better than China internally, but I mostly agree that China is not substantially worse than the US in terms of foreign policy.
- yellowcake0 6y ago
  My intention was to point out the irony of Chinese nationals wanting to immigrate to the US, ostensibly because China is ruled by a bunch of "crazy psychopaths". When the reality is that the US is also run, at least in part, by a bunch of crazy psychopaths. But my point was not well taken.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

agumonkey 6y ago

Once upon a time I used to spend way to much time on Omegle (worldwide random 1:1 chat). Once a chinese girl was online, we chat about our countries, I explain how much I like china as a kid for martial arts, food, aesthetics, it was friendly and casual (chinese people on omegle often expressed worries about the value of their country, I wanted to make her feel at ease). Quickly though she started to say it's not all rosey, rules are strict, internet firewall.. suddenly she stopped talking. She typed a bunch of omg omg omg i shouldn't have said that omg sorry disconnect. It was nothing yet I felt fear in her behavior. All that for expressing very mild discontent about her country. First time I ever felt the impact of politicians on people's mind.. also a 'freedom of speech' felt different after that.

koheripbal 6y ago
This thread is nothing but personal anecdotes.
- agumonkey 6y ago
  So, with enough anecdotes we'll reach statistical significance
  - koheripbal 6y ago
    No, because anecdotes suffer from sample bias since they are self-reported.
    - agumonkey 6y ago
      You fail to see the 12 month of 24/7 presence on this site and interaction with all countries. To hell with stats.

archibaldJ 6y ago

It's ultimiately a matter of dependency i.e. econmically well-off Chinese people who have dependencies with CCP (e.g. official party member (6.6% of the population), or owning a family business that interfaces with CCP, even if unofficially, etc), V.S. well-off Chinese with little or no dependencies. To be where they are now (outside of China receiving education, etc), the former group (or their parents/relatives) fought hard to get benefits from their relationship with CCP, while the later group (or their parents/relatives) fought hard to find a path out of this CCP madness. And thus the contrast. My grandfather was a minister and a proud CCP member. But he was the type who believes in doing the moral things and never took bribe. He worked crazy hours and get paid penauts. Most of my relatives saw him as foolish because he basically didn't fight to "get benefits from his relationship with CCP" and stayed poor for all his life. And most of his colleagues and superordinates don't like him because you can't help one another to climb the rank (or generate wealth) like this.

john4532452 6y ago
Thanks for this post. Every support or opposition towards authority boils down to economic incentives. Glad to hear from some one from the inside.
chii 6y ago
> And most of his colleagues and superordinates don't like him they don't like him not because of the ladder climb, but because him being a goody-two-shoe means that their corrupt activities are more likely to be shown as "wrong", and therefore, more risky for them. it's like being a good cop in a department where the other cops are bought and paid for.