after talking about how china does things poorly, this strikes me is exactly how the 3rd world approaches business.

What is interesting to show in comparison is how in the US a handshake has been a man's word for a long time - this kind of stuff is fully understood to be not respecting the spirit of a contract which is in many ways worse than not respecting the letter, because it signals an unreliability which can hurt you at an unpredictable time.