>>3
One of my favorite China stories, I lived there for a little more than two years, is this: I lived at the end of a toll road that the Central govt. had built some years ago. Like in the US they said "Hey folks, we're gonna build this nice road and charge a toll to pay for it. When we've made our money back, we'll stop charging the toll. Like in the US, the time came and went and the toll booths remained. The local communities complaints went unanswered so one day, hundreds of people got together, took some heavy equipment, politely asked the toll collectors to vacate the booths, and tore them from the road. I'd like to see something like that happen here. Though not really 'cause I think people would die.
The Chinese are the masters of minding their own business. See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil. The Chinese don't call the police because of something their neighbors are doing. The police are more often called in to mediate disputes with government agencies.
In the USA we are a mix of cultures and social norms so in order to function we have agreed that the law will be the bottom line. In China, there's a highly socialized culture that's so old it knows that laws and governments come and go. It's your social position that matters, and a stand up kind of person can do pretty much anything he wants. The best example is driving. They have all the same traffic laws as the West, but they are rarely paid attention to. Instead the people interact as traffic. If somebody's going fast, let 'em pass. If somebody's going slow, go around them. If the lights red but nobody's around, go through it. There's no camera. It's trained on Tiananmen Square making sure some kids not raising a Free Tibet Banner.
Sorry for the tl;dr, but you did ask.