Everything you say resonates with my experience too. And not to contradict myself but on the plus side for business in China, I found the expat entrepreneurs there to be pretty close-knit and more than happy to collaborate and help you out. That made things a lot easier and was probably the saving grace for many of my peers.

Having said that, after navigating those waters for awhile, I enjoy dealing with a clear legal framework, laws that are more often than not applied uniformly, and a government that doesn't stifle the free exchange of ideas on the internet to such a point that you need a pretty beefy VPN solution just to do a Google search.

Just my opinion though, good to hear you have been successful in your work - good luck and keep on trucking!