>> I knew several Chinese colleagues and friends like these. They are all good people wanting to make a good life by working hard, nothing to blame them. But it was kind of an unwritten rule that if you had two Chinese working in your team, you had no chance beating them.
I've had the opposite experience. Most of the ones I knew were work evasive, and spent substantial time craming for leet code. I think there might be a generation gap at work.
No, as in they worked with me during graduate studies or were on my team and it was extremely frustrating. In particular "playing dumb" to avoid work was particularly offensive as that strategy created more future work but also involved people lying to my face.
I've had the opposite experience. Most of the ones I knew were work evasive, and spent substantial time craming for leet code. I think there might be a generation gap at work.