CRIME
Globally, crime accounts for roughly 2% of a countries population. It's fairly consistent around the world, not including countries "under duress", such as Afghanistan, Iraq, etc.
The population numbers merely show that although China (rounding the population up to 1.5 bil) is also running at roughly 2% - with 4-5x the population of the USA, 15x the population of Sweden, 30x the population of Norway, etc etc - problems here are significantly more pronounced.
Corruption - like counterfeiting, is a tremendous boat anchor on a country's attempts to move forwards. Most US economics university students are required to calculate the effect of adding a single USD 1 to the US economy. It's a VERY rough calculation, but the impacts are staggering. Now throw in the known fact that the US exports USD 40 BILLION a year tax free to Mexico in illicit drug money. It only represents a 0.3% outflow of capital compared to the US GDP - but that only represents the revenues sent to Mexico.
Going with that 2% number - we may also estimate (for lack of any other stats) that the number of tourists coming to China for clandestine reasons is also 2%. In light of some recent highly visible, high profile illicit activities by foreigners - to include the recently deceased british money launderer scandal, the drunken british sex offender, etc - I can see how the police would be pressured to go through the motions of denting the number of foreign dissidents entering this country (example: indiscreet retaliatory banning of Norwegians et al for pro-Dali Lama news events, retaliatory tariffs against the USA and the EU for their solar PV tariffs, etc).
As for "harmonious" - this government, by dynastic standards, is still new. As a fledgling government - they propelled China past Japan as the #2 economy in the world, and the country hasn't even ramped up to full speed yet. Population-wise, China has roughly the equivalent economic potential of 10 Japans and unlike Japan, China has vast natural resources. The country may not have the immediate gratification of "harmonious" by western standards - but the current administration has made and continues to make tremendous strides towards "harmonizing" the countryside. We can help.
As for foreigners living and working here - don't overestimate our blusterous potential. China can quite readily send its students OUT to acquire knowledge, tech, etc. But until recently, the immediate return rate was rather abysmal. Those overseas students now have 20-30 years of foreign experience - and China is aggressively recruiting them to return home.
As for visa issues - see JJ's thread (locked) on how the US Consulate & Embassy treated him when he tried to sponsor a friend's high-school level child to the USA for a visit. Arbitrary rejection - they apparently didn't even look at the application and would provide NO justification on the rejection. That stinks of visa fraud - it's a jackpot of foreign revenues and profit for the US Embassies...from an accountant's perspective.
