> With China I think maybe you have to keep in mind what a scarring catastrophe Maoism was. Middle class people and values were systematically purged.

Maoism was a resounding success, it was the cultural revolution that replaced the middle class.

I think the lack of trust rises from the fact that the chinese middle class were very recently (< 1 generation) the poor/underclass. There concept of wealth is a lot more transient than the west's, they have a much greater fear of losing wealth (given it happened almost overnight during the cultural revolution). It generates what the west views as a "selfish" attitude, but is probably viewed by Chinese as "prudent".