[yourapostasy]

> ...the toxic "Laoban" culture, an "old boys club" of inept, privileged, people currently running China.

Is this largely a generation-specific culture, that will mostly pass on as the generation dies off, or embedded within the Chinese culture itself, and has a far greater inertial momentum to overcome and thus will take much longer to turn around (perhaps even generations of change)? My gut feel from my general reading is this is an intrinsic part of Chinese culture, though slowly changing starting at the more youth-oriented demographic-populated fringes that interact the most with the outside world.

[ambicapter]

Given the way their government work (one-party rule), I would blame it more on their political system than their culture. Obviously you can make the argument that culture precedes political system, and also the same argument the other way. Bit of a nature vs nurture thing.