Many western men make childish mistakes of marrying a woman from a developing country,
Anyone who has spent any time in China has observed Caucasian men coupled with Chinese women.
With rare exception, the man would have little possibility of finding a mate in his own country. In turn, his Chinese wife would have difficulty marrying well, if at all, in China. In the best of circumstances, the man believes his wife is beautiful (being unaccustomed to Chinese standards of beauty) and the women thinks her fat-but-tall white-but-old husband is handsome, attributing to him the Chinese standards.
There is a sweet symbiosis in their delusion.
They have an agenda of that there is no doubt.
http://www.henrymakow.com/my_chinese_wife_set_a_trap.html
Many western men make childish mistakes of marrying a woman from a developing country, when they are not even very rich themselves, and with nothing back home. As you say, like your 55 year old mate, the future for him is oblivion, unless he gets his arse out of China, pronto! Not meaning to sound harsh, but he has to get out of there, or it is career and social suicide, esp. getting nearer to his 60s.