Reading my post again, it was way too black-and-white. I was typing it out on a phone, so it's hard to express anything in detail. Of course cheating is decently common in all cultures, my point was that I didn't feel that cheating was respected as a sign of cleverness in Chinese culture, more that if there's just huge pressure on you to get high marks, win, etc., and little focus on other side goals, then cheating is sort of a natural side effect.

For example, in high school and university, most of my friends had parents who wanted them to do well grades-wise, but also wanted them to focus on other things like their social life, hobbies, and developing a passion in a specific area. Low grades wouldn't draw any more concern than not socializing much, not having hobbies, etc., and a "well rounded" life with mediocre grades was general seen as "my kid's doing well."

Among my Chinese friends, it was more common for their parents to focus on grades above all else. The parents weren't that interested in the side goals, they really just applied huge pressure to their kids to get the highest grades. The kid could be doing all sorts of awesome things, but if their grades were mediocre, their parents were generally pretty disappointed.

I figure it's more likely something like this with the Baidu team - major pressure to win, above all else, that would drive the cheating, vs. cheating being seen as some positive sign of cleverness.

"Cheating is rampant in China" != "only the Chinese cheat"

Origin poster wrote: "Cheating is pretty entrenched in Chinese culture."

Translation: "Sick man of Asia is a cheat"