Most ex-pats/ FT's in China, even long term, can't speak even basic Chinese. They rely on wives and GF's to translate for them. I've seen it many times, it's quite pathetic.

The thing is, putonghua is actually not that hard to learn. High levels of fluency in speaking can be attained fairly rapidly. Cantonese is a different story IMO. As for Mandarin though, no excuse for long term laowai not being able to speak it.