The problem I think with some authoritarian
cultures is they are told everything, from political beliefs to education it’s a one way stream of information. They aren’t educated to think for themselves, and in your situation where they haven’t used their brain to think about something, they then just lie. I had it working with Russians, they’re so keen to enforce rules and processes because they’re worried people are going to steal from them, even if those processes cost more money in time than the size of the risk involved, whereas with a brain they’d realise they spend lots of money on very small risks.
I’ve only been been to China once and wouldn’t go again, didn’t like it for various reasons. One of them being a packed tube, where everyone tries to get off at the same time quite literally, from all angles. I could’ve punched someone.
On the flip side, there are advantages to this culture as to control the spread within a country of over 1bn people even if they have fudged their numbers, was pretty impressive.