Punishment Culture:
I have heard of numerous punishments lately:
$3000 for late gear up selection at BCA (Capital airlines)
$3000 for selecting flap above 20000ft (BCA)
$12,000 loss of safety bonus at Spring Airlines for FO performing 2g landing
$3000 for activating 'SPEED SPEED' warning
Well, looking at these
ups, I'd say that they've gotten off mildly! You can say what you want about a "punitive" culture, and quite honesty I'm no big fan of flying in micromanaged China either, but honestly what did you expect? Speed warnings, selecting flaps above 20000 feet, 2G landings, forgetting to select the gear up? Altitude busts because people are having problems looking at a conversion table? Seriously, what are these people doing in the cockpit?
These are all pretty serious incidents if you ask me, and I'm pretty sure that you'd be invited for some serious tea & biscuits (if not fired on the spot!) in
any European, Asian or US airline.
As for the stoic way of the Chinese...well...I guess a lot of people simply get blinded by the promise of a big pay check, instead of doing some due diligence and checking things out
before going over. You see the same thing over and over in our industry, people flocking to China or the Middle East, only to find out that a big sexy airplane in combination with a big pay check is not the golden recipe for a long term satisfying career in aviation.