Not unique!
QAR busts, adversarial training, bad food and hotels are common. Xiamen was putting crews in a hotel in Hangzhou with prostitution and drug activity. They also used a kennel in Fuzhou for the crews, and even the Chinese didn't like it.
It is not always so bad - sometimes you get a good hotel and decent crew meals.
Briefings are often like talking to the wall. You say it in English, and the copilot translates. You say a short sentence, and he delivers a long lecture until you stop him and insist on a strict translation of your instructions.
There are Communist Party zealots in each company who want operations done their way, and they don't want foreigners contaminating the brew.
$12K for an altitude bust? Par for Confucian flying in the metric system.