Yes it happens, But So does getting hit by the bus while crossing the street, does that mean We should now portray public transport as some evil entity? Chinese Americans have been known to cheat local companies from their hard earned money, So should C-As be treated with suspicision as some sort of alien breed that have sold out their own people and is only good for licking the foreign devil's boots?

Honestly, I don't understand the direction in which this discussion is going and the purpose in making those remarks....But then these are the thoughts of a patriotic American I suppose

@tony
If you've never been a victim of the perfect storm - then yes - it's great that it's a rare occurrence and you're one of the lucky.

If you HAVE been victimized of perfect legal storms - it an extremely embittering experience. Obviously, you got to live the happy life - great for you.

.

What's a Chinese American?

@laotou I am aware that such things happen, But I don't understand what it has to do with the topic and How it's related to living in Kunming or China in general. Seems like a random potshot at the country you So dearly love.

On the one hand, you use such rare instances to label US government/society morally corrupt but on the other, when such heavy handed tactics IS in use at a higher prevelent rate here in China, you can't sing the CCP controled government fast enough.

BTW, are you trying imply that you've experience such police brutality first hand? If so, it would seem that you are that one rare specimen in which all great and horrible things converge upon, you've live quite a colorful life. I don't think if you take three random persons off the street, combined, they would come close to the experiences you've had.

PS. I've lived through the Rodney King riots and the Ellian Gomez snatch and run, as well as the street vendor beatdowns and government thugs grabing land from defenceless villagers here in China, So I'm keenly aware of the ugliness of the police State. However, I'm not quite ready to proclaim either society corrupt and worthy of our despise.

..

@tony
We're similar in our opinions or apathy of "live and let live" regarding the China versus USA philosophy of domestic and international government.

Why the big deal about one yuan? That would depend on one's professional career and responsibilities. To most normal people - ¥1 is negligible and not worth noticing or getting all worked up about. To a professional accountant, corporate controller, or the big boss, ¥0.01 can generate a corporate firestorm.

Why am I so harsh with my criticism of the USA and as some pundits would posit - China's archangel Gabriel? The USA is a developed country and arguably the wealthiest nation in the world. With great wealth comes great responsibility - but I see the US behaving like a spoiled brat and international bully. I don't see a nation leading the world like a benevolent demigod - espousing truth, justice, liberty, human rights for all, etc ad infinitum. I see massive, pervasive, and arrogant hypocrisy. Our government and its leaders are above the law and flaunt it in our faces - yet we the American people do nothing. We are apathetic as a nation. The voter implemented campaign contribution limits have been massively circumvented - but we as a nation say nothing, do nothing, encouraging the corruption to grow and fester, like a cancer.

Why sing the praises of China? China is a developing nation. In 60-70 years - it has surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy, with roughly one third of the country mobilized. The south, west, central, and northern regions of china are still largely ineffective economically. Despite this - China was recognized by the UN for it's SIGNIFICANT reduction of poverty - the numbers went DOWN in a noticeable and significant manner. The world's arguably richest and wealthiest nation - poverty increased. There's something rotting at home - yet we ignore it apathetically and negligently. Democracy and liberty require and demand responsibility or liberty is lost and that will be not a shame, but shameful.

To me, the USA and China are roughly equal in domestic policy - they just use different words to describe the same things. Yes, China's not perfect - but the USA pretends to be perfect, the leader of the free world - and I find my government's international and domestic behavior severely wanting - but I also don't have responsibility for the short and long-term national security of the USA and it's people - both at home and abroad. That said, right is right and wrong is wrong - if we can't be consistent - then we're just like everybody else and I still believe the USA is BETTER an most or at least, once had the opportunity to be the clear benevolent global leader - but we squandered that with petty greed and corruption. Instead of a great nation - we became a petty nation.

I'm frequently accused of being petty - making mountains out of a grain of sand, etc etc etc. I come from a different professional world than most people. A world where an improperly installed bolt, by a skilled but deluded worker, killed the very people it was designed to save. Small, seemingly insignificant things can rapidly snowball into disastrous consequences - given the perfect storm - or worse - the perfect storms we're tasked with creating aren't perfect, resulting in the utter obliteration and annihilation of entire cities.

China or the USA's human rights status, economic trade wars, and other incessant bickering pales in comparison.

The USA has this ability, it created it, maintains it, and is the only country in the world, which has used it (twice). AND all those weapons are in a continuous state of alert and readiness.

Therefore I hold my country to a higher standard of behavior than the rest of the world, combined.

So, would you describe that kind of job and that kind of responsibility, "colorful" or fantasy? Just a small cog in a big wheel - am I severely overstating my role, contribution, and importance?

How about the fabled M16 rifle - worked great in the lab - but it wasn't initially battle tested for southeast asia type jungle or desert use, sustained firepower engagements with massive numbers of enemies (should've learned from the Korean war), carbon fouling, cleaning, training. How do you keep a high performance, high maintenance weapon clean in a battlefield jungle environment? Is something as simple and rudimentary as "cleaning your weapon" a critical function? If you fail to keep your weapon clean - will it malfunction, will you die? Even if you do keep your weapon religiously clean, will it malfunction? Will you die? How important is a small cog in a big wheel?

A typical microprocessor in a typical computer today, contains BILLIONs of transistors, executing MILLIONS of instructions per second. How important is it that the device NOT have errors smaller than 10^-12 or 10^-18? What are the odds that an error of this minuscule magnitude could knock an airplane out of the sky?

Most normal people have never dealt with large scale complicated systems, be they technical or financial. Most normal people would say, "what's the big deal about ¥0.01" or an error of "10^-18". Most normal people don't deal with data processing of millions, to billions, to trillions of operations per second, in parallel, running for days to months, where a subatomically and infinitely small error can propagate into a mission critical error of massive proportion, because some non-technical manager used an emotional feeling to make a technical decision.

I'm absolutely not normal. When normal people meet someone not normal - the "normals" immediately leap to the conclusion that the "not normals" are insane, deluded, or fantasizing. The more uncouth and poorly educated rapidly resort to schoolyard bullying and feigned mocking and ridiculing things they've never seen, never witnessed, and will never comprehend - looking to the general community to support, relegating that which they don't understand or have never seen to the fringes of the believable or more comfortably, to the realms of the impossible.

The internet can make anyone an instant blogging expert an innumerable and diverse subjects. I used it to design one of the world's first and arguably largest 3G networks (outside of China and India), based on virtually zero information from the customer.

You would think - by being one of the world's first and foremost experts in 3G design, I should have spent the rest of my life doing lectures, writing academic papers, and retiring to some telecom university as a demigod of telecom tech as opposed to writing idiotic, verbose blogs in a remote province of China - that was traditionally reserved for banishment and exile from China's historical capitals.

I've seen and done amazing things in this world as an ordinary man who is NOT talented, is NOT a genius, and is NOT a brilliant ivy league student. I have to work 2-10 x harder than normal people - I'm probably stupider than most normal people. I was born on a farm, raised in a rural town. Didn't wear shoes (I'd take them off upon arrival) to school, so I'd look like my white classmates.

We all have colorful experiences - some more foreign than others. ALL the expats living here live incredulously unbelievable fairy tale lives here compared to our brethren back home - wherever that is.

I'm not special - but I know that in this world - I am unique. And if I'm unique, my late wife - was the unique of unique, or to misquote popular pop chinese movie comedies - the god of unique. EVERYONE's unique and everyone is uniquely special, in their own way. Everyone normal hardworking person in China is a 1 Yuan Bill, deserving of respect and dignity and the right to a harmonious life, sufficient healthcare, sufficient retirement care, and a place to live. That was the American dream, abused time and time again by our banks (S&L scandal and the more recent global financial crisis scandal, salted liberally with IPO, pyramid schemes, and accounting scandals in between). It's also MAYBE the China Dream, New Silk Road initiatives, notwithstanding.

Why focus on rural development projects in China instead of the USA? Simply - the US government has a long history of NOT favoring rural farmers, with bizarre and counterproductive and sometimes byzantine practices.

China is aggressively seeking solutions to poverty alleviation, in addition to the currently imploding issues of an insufficient social retirement system and a straining social insurance system.

Some have claimed the US social security system works great. If you retired as a well compensated white collar professional - the middle to upper class - that's usually true.

But what about the other 30% of society - the waitresses, the fry cooks, the school and warehouse janitors - the lower income segment of our society - living check to check. How will they build up retirement nest eggs when they can barely put money aside from rainy days, much less supplemental retirement savings. How will they buy their own homes, so they won't face eviction when they can't make the rent? How will they pay for healthcare (ok...maybe Obamacare? - oh...that's doesn't work when you're retired - you're transitioned to medicare). And who can actually figure out a tax system where you and I must pay "our fair share of taxes", but companies such as Bank of America (granted they hire a lot of people), can pay zero taxes.

And - if we try to force our multinationals to pay taxes, they flee offshore - HP, Apple, IBM, Microsoft - they're all offshore, hiding their offshore profits - how do you verify this - which companies have offshore or shell companies in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Maldives, Lichtenstein (dead give away for money laundering), and a host of other off-shore tax havens - but the IRS must have its pound of blood from the US taxpayers...but I diverged ... again...too much information.

What's the difference between arrogance, insanity, and vision? In yet another wild divergence of logic - that's why I respect Salvador's and Colin - he treats his employees - the 1 Yuan Bill people - like human beings, with dignity and respect. He invests in them.

I don't believe I'll ever retire - my fate is to work until I die - so better choose something I believe in - some believe in Jesus, others, Buddha, Dao, Islam, etc. I believe in the One Yuan Bill. That's my China Dream...and screw the FG cult. So rah rah China - yeah because in spite of their growing pains - they do NOT have the ability to annihilate the entire world several times over and in this one thing - we are in agreement and I can work until I die to try to make a difference, without worrying about how I'm going to feed, clothe, and house myself and my family...and I don't have to do it under the auspices of some NGO.

I can leave my kids a legacy - if they want it - as the One Yuan Bill projects cannot be completed in my lifetime, cuz I'm just too old. Bill Gates left his kids over a billion dollars in charitable funds to manage. I'm leaving my kids over a billion people, one family, one community, one village at a time.

So - is this way off-topic for FG scribbling garbage on one yuan bills - or is it a better way to see what a one yuan bill can represent and screw the FG cult with their (to me) pointless propaganda.

You decide - me - I'm still trying to catch up to Colin...he's already done a village...

@tony
We're similar in our opinions or apathy of "live and let live" regarding the China versus USA philosophy of domestic and international government.

Why the big deal about one yuan? That would depend on one's professional career and responsibilities. To most normal people - ¥1 is negligible and not worth noticing or getting all worked up about. To a professional accountant, corporate controller, or the big boss, ¥0.01 can generate a corporate firestorm.

Why am I so harsh with my criticism of the USA and as some pundits would posit - China's archangel Gabriel? The USA is a developed country and arguably the wealthiest nation in the world. With great wealth comes great responsibility - but I see the US behaving like a spoiled brat and international bully. I don't see a nation leading the world like a benevolent demigod - espousing truth, justice, liberty, human rights for all, etc ad infinitum. I see massive, pervasive, and arrogant hypocrisy. Our government and its leaders are above the law and flaunt it in our faces - yet we the American people do nothing. We are apathetic as a nation. The voter implemented campaign contribution limits have been massively circumvented - but we as a nation say nothing, do nothing, encouraging the corruption to grow and fester, like a cancer.

Why sing the praises of China? China is a developing nation. In 60-70 years - it has surpassed Japan as the world's second largest economy, with roughly one third of the country mobilized. The south, west, central, and northern regions of china are still largely ineffective economically. Despite this - China was recognized by the UN for it's SIGNIFICANT reduction of poverty - the numbers went DOWN in a noticeable and significant manner. The world's arguably richest and wealthiest nation - poverty increased. There's something rotting at home - yet we ignore it apathetically and negligently. Democracy and liberty require and demand responsibility or liberty is lost and that will be not a shame, but shameful.

To me, the USA and China are roughly equal in domestic policy - they just use different words to describe the same things. Yes, China's not perfect - but the USA pretends to be perfect, the leader of the free world - and I find my government's international and domestic behavior severely wanting - but I also don't have responsibility for the short and long-term national security of the USA and it's people - both at home and abroad. That said, right is right and wrong is wrong - if we can't be consistent - then we're just like everybody else and I still believe the USA is BETTER than most or at least, once had the opportunity to be the clear benevolent global leader - but we squandered that with petty greed and corruption. Instead of a great nation - we became a petty nation.

I'm frequently accused of being petty - making mountains out of a grain of sand, etc etc etc. I come from a different professional world than most people. A world where an improperly installed bolt, by a skilled but deluded worker, killed the very people it was designed to save. Small, seemingly insignificant things can rapidly snowball into disastrous consequences - given the perfect storm - or worse - the perfect storms we're tasked with creating aren't perfect, resulting in the utter obliteration and annihilation of entire cities.

China or the USA's human rights status, economic trade wars, and other incessant bickering pales in comparison.

The USA has this ability, it created it, maintains it, and is the only country in the world, which has used it (twice). AND all those weapons are in a continuous state of alert and readiness.

Therefore I hold my country to a higher standard of behavior than the rest of the world, combined.

So, would you describe that kind of job and that kind of responsibility, "colorful" or fantasy? Just a small cog in a big wheel - am I severely overstating my role, contribution, and importance?

How about the fabled M16 rifle - worked great in the lab - but it wasn't initially battle tested for southeast asia type jungle or desert use, sustained firepower engagements with massive numbers of enemies (should've learned from the Korean war), carbon fouling, cleaning, training. How do you keep a high performance, high maintenance weapon clean in a battlefield jungle environment? Is something as simple and rudimentary as "cleaning your weapon" a critical function? If you fail to keep your weapon clean - will it malfunction, will you die? Even if you do keep your weapon religiously clean, will it malfunction? Will you die? How important is a small cog in a big wheel?

A typical microprocessor in a typical computer today, contains BILLIONs of transistors, executing MILLIONS of instructions per second. How important is it that the device NOT have errors smaller than 10^-12 or 10^-18? What are the odds that an error of this minuscule magnitude could knock an airplane out of the sky?

Most normal people have never dealt with large scale complicated systems, be they technical or financial. Most normal people would say, "what's the big deal about ¥0.01" or an error of "10^-18". Most normal people don't deal with data processing of millions, to billions, to trillions of operations per second, in parallel, running for days to months, where a subatomically and infinitely small error can propagate into a mission critical error of massive proportion, because some non-technical manager used an emotional feeling to make a technical decision.

I'm absolutely not normal. When normal people meet someone not normal - the "normals" immediately leap to the conclusion that the "not normals" are insane, deluded, or fantasizing. The more uncouth and poorly educated rapidly resort to schoolyard bullying and feigned mocking and ridiculing things they've never seen, never witnessed, and will never comprehend - looking to the general community to support, relegating that which they don't understand or have never seen to the fringes of the believable or more comfortably, to the realms of the impossible.

The internet can make anyone an instant blogging expert an innumerable and diverse subjects. I used it to design one of the world's first and arguably largest 3G networks (outside of China and India), based on virtually zero information from the customer.

You would think - by being one of the world's first and foremost experts in 3G design, I should have spent the rest of my life doing lectures, writing academic papers, and retiring to some telecom university as a demigod of telecom tech as opposed to writing idiotic, verbose blogs in a remote province of China - that was traditionally reserved for banishment and exile from China's historical capitals.

I've seen and done amazing things in this world as an ordinary man who is NOT talented, is NOT a genius, and is NOT a brilliant ivy league student. I have to work 2-10 x harder than normal people - I'm probably stupider than most normal people. I was born on a farm, raised in a rural town. Didn't wear shoes (I'd take them off upon arrival) to school, so I'd look like my white classmates.

We all have colorful experiences - some more foreign than others. ALL the expats living here live incredulously unbelievable fairy tale lives here compared to our brethren back home - wherever that is.

I'm not special - but I know that in this world - I am unique. And if I'm unique, my late wife - was the unique of unique, or to misquote popular pop chinese movie comedies - the god of unique. EVERYONE's unique and everyone is uniquely special, in their own way. Everyone normal hardworking person in China is a 1 Yuan Bill, deserving of respect and dignity and the right to a harmonious life, sufficient healthcare, sufficient retirement care, and a place to live. That was the American dream, abused time and time again by our banks (S&L scandal and the more recent global financial crisis scandal, salted liberally with IPO, pyramid schemes, and accounting scandals in between). It's also MAYBE the China Dream, New Silk Road initiatives, notwithstanding.

Why focus on rural development projects in China instead of the USA? Simply - the US government has a long history of NOT favoring rural farmers, with bizarre and counterproductive and sometimes byzantine practices.

China is aggressively seeking solutions to poverty alleviation, in addition to the currently imploding issues of an insufficient social retirement system and a straining social insurance system.

Some have claimed the US social security system works great. If you retired as a well compensated white collar professional - the middle to upper class - that's usually true.

But what about the other 30% of society - the waitresses, the fry cooks, the school and warehouse janitors - the lower income segment of our society - living check to check. How will they build up retirement nest eggs when they can barely put money aside from rainy days, much less supplemental retirement savings. How will they buy their own homes, so they won't face eviction when they can't make the rent? How will they pay for healthcare (ok...maybe Obamacare? - oh...that's doesn't work when you're retired - you're transitioned to medicare). And who can actually figure out a tax system where you and I must pay "our fair share of taxes", but companies such as Bank of America (granted they hire a lot of people), can pay zero taxes.

And - if we try to force our multinationals to pay taxes, they flee offshore - HP, Apple, IBM, Microsoft - they're all offshore, hiding their offshore profits - how do you verify this - which companies have offshore or shell companies in tax havens such as the British Virgin Islands (BVI), Maldives, Lichtenstein (dead give away for money laundering), and a host of other off-shore tax havens - but the IRS must have its pound of blood from the US taxpayers...but I diverged ... again...too much information.

What's the difference between arrogance, insanity, and vision? In yet another wild divergence of logic - that's why I respect Salvador's and Colin - he treats his employees - the 1 Yuan Bill people - like human beings, with dignity and respect. He invests in them.

I don't believe I'll ever retire - my fate is to work until I die - so better choose something I believe in - some believe in Jesus, others, Buddha, Dao, Islam, etc. I believe in the One Yuan Bill. That's my China Dream...and screw the FG cult. So rah rah China - yeah because in spite of their growing pains - they do NOT have the ability to annihilate the entire world several times over and in this one thing - we are in agreement and I can work until I die to try to make a difference, without worrying about how I'm going to feed, clothe, and house myself and my family...and I don't have to do it under the auspices of some NGO.

I can leave my kids a legacy - if they want it - as the One Yuan Bill projects cannot be completed in my lifetime, cuz I'm just too old. Bill Gates left his kids over a billion dollars in charitable funds to manage. I'm leaving my kids over a billion people, one family, one community, one village at a time.

So - is this way off-topic for FG scribbling garbage on one yuan bills - or is it a better way to see what a one yuan bill can represent and screw the FG cult with their (to me) pointless propaganda.

You decide - me - I'm still trying to catch up to Colin...he's already done a village...

.

@laotou
WOW!