That is the rule of animal kindom: eat or be eaten.

Factor in the human greed, the living condition in China becomes infinitely worse than the most hostile  environment you can think of in the world. 

It is why the tension in China is so high everywhere. Do you want to know the trick an American journalist used to  distinguish the Chinese and the tourists (with Chinese origin) from other part of the world, in Tiananmen square?  The facial expression. When you look at the facial expressions of Chinese, you rarely see a relaxed and calm smile. What you see are  distress, anger,  dispire, or just plain numb.

This belief is also the reason why China is going in the opposite direction against the rest of the world.