I empathize with this guy, he learned the hard way. In such an environment, parachuting of Singaporean scholars or whatever 'talents' is a sure and fast way to fail, one needs to look no further than Suzhou.
'He also debunked the common misconception among Singaporeans that "the Chinese are all cheats".' Diplomacy at work here. He really can't say otherwise, can he? Not if he's still doing business there. One just have to assume they are all crooks and start filtering the scums from there. Sure, China today has changed almost unrecognizably but too many things are ingrained, like screwing the naive foreigners. Some things just don't change.
I remembered reading a book by an American who was assigned to China in the 70's. It was hilarious, his experiences there with the Chinese, but yet so enlightening. Wished I had remembered the title.