[Thermalseeker]

Exactly the same thing has been said about Chinese culture right here on this website.

I wouldn't say that Chinese culture is necessarily corrupt. Their leaders are, but not the average guy on the street. Arabs, OTOH, have told me deceit is a part of their culture. Hard to argue the point when they tell you this, then you witness it for yourself in their country.....

[wideminded]

I think the discussion of deceit in Chinese culture occurred about the time of the melamine/food-tainting scandals. The claim was that the ability to put one over the other party in a business transaction is a universally accepted, expected, and even admired part of Chinese culture.

While I haven't had a problem with any individual Chinese, I have seen multiple companies involved in business dealings with China find out that after sharing their technology they were getting nothing out of the deal. And obviously when you buy any food, drug, cosmetic, chemical, etc. from China, you can't be sure what you are getting without rigorous testing.

So it's caveat emptor pretty much everywhere. I don't doubt that deceit is part of Arab culture. But I'm not sure one can say that this is a unique feature.