There is some truth to this. When Chinese do something out of line, if called on it they will simply say "It was a misunderstanding" and that is has more to do with it being a different culture then anything else. "Ah, lies, cheating, and stealing are part of Chines culture, I see."

People first coming to China will feel obliged to take a lot of crap, mainly because they are intimidated by being here in a strange land alone, and they will tend to attribute much that goes wrong to simple cultural misunderstandings. The Chinese count on this, believe me.