caring
- 2016-05-30
Your title is misleading as the person in case seems just unfortunate and frustrated with the system mostly. Motorbikes/scooters truly get confiscated by authoritative local cops daily for they are the easier target than cars in which some drivers may be too much for them. Just like in our nations, poor people get taken advantage of in China too. Since laws are mere suggestions and welfare is minimal in this country, those folks suffer quite a bit more than our folks do. For a FT who works here as long as the one in your quotations, the abuse may be unparalleled to the one of locals though. This person, coming to China, may just have assumed that his role would be more meaningful than it really was. Chinese leaders, managers or any superiors appear to be fairly good with their hidden agenda. So, even though I do not know the whole story about this person, the "Truman Show" that you are suggesting is, in my view, a presumption and an overkill here. FTs deserve a bit more respect than to be considered for nuts for blowing up after having bad experiences. This is the eslteachersboard after all, or at least I would like to think so.
John O'Shei
- 2016-05-29
The negative events affecting foreigners are only mere symptoms of bigger problems. Of course, we aren't actually all that important in the big scheme of things.
It's the local Chinese people that are already suffering the brunt of what can only get worse in the near future. Foreigners can scale back or even get out of there completely. Chinese people haven't usually got that option, unless they are rich enough to obtain a foreign passport through investment or other means.
"I just left China 2 days ago after being there four years. You don't have to be important in China to get in trouble, all you have to be seen as is an offender and you are hosed. I was literally threatened with prison for merely having a motorcycle and my moto was legal. China in the last 2 years has turned into a very scary place to live. I mean the government told China that the west was the reason for the stock market problems. People lost fortunes! And guess who was to blame!? Us!!"
There is a recurring delusion among FTs that they are important scapegoats in China.
Please listen carefully: Chinese people spend little or no time thinking about foreigners.
FTs spend enormous energy processing their treatment in China as a reflection of some grand conspiracy, as if their time in Shaanxi is their Truman Show.
The one policeman on that one day that took that one FTs motorcycle did so for some insignificant variable reason.
If the writer/rider thinks it is because the government of China is cracking down on foreigners because of international market manipulation, it's fortunate that he is now on a flight home where he can purchase his medication in time to vote for Trump.