Sonk, you are correct. Germany has made progress over the last 70/80 years. And no, I would not have wanted to live in Germany back then (despite me being tall, blonde, blue eyed, with grandparent Austrian heritage).

China has changed dramatically since its 1980s opening up, but it still has a pervasive culture of dishonesty. It is far more likely to get cheated in China, IMHO, than in most developed countries.

In my view, one of the reasons for this is that there are few consequences for the cheaters if/when they are caught (as was experienced in your JH600 case). There are several famous sociological studies that have found that if the risk of detection is low, and the consequences minor (if detected), a surprising majority of people will commonly cheat. This is the case even where the person believes that they are a stand-up, honest person.

Making matters worse, if it is "normal" to cheat (i.e., culturally pervasive), then it becomes abnormal to not cheat - in other words, if you don't try to cheat at every opportunity, you are considered odd.

Anyone who has academic experience in China will have experienced the cultural normality of cheating, pervasive throughout China. About a decade ago, I was administering an exam of Chinese professors at a famous Chinese university. Cheating was not only rampant, it was out in the open, even among the esteemed faculty. Completely shocked, I stopped the exam and stormed into the university president's office. There, I was "educated" about Mao's famous assertion that "It is smart to copy another persons work. That is how a person will learn the right way." Not only was cheating justified, it was considered a virtue. I ended up being chastised for not appreciating "academic honesty, with Chinese characteristics". Fortunately, my home uni backed me ... but just barely, because the joint program was generating a lot of money.