Chinese view of foreign researchers

Interesting article in Southern Weekend by Chinese academic 张结海 on foreigners conducting research in China. The translation is from the EastSouthWestNorth blog (東南西北) in HK:

Here, I wish to solemnly tell everybody -- for any research done by a foreigner on China, you can put up a question mark first. Especially, those foreigners who come to make some short trips in several major cities in China and are greeted and shown around by Chinese people. You might as well as not listen to what they say. That is not because they are stupid, but because the situation of our nation is too special.

Zhang is affiliated with the Shanghai Academy of Science Social Sciences Academy (上海社科院社会学所). One criticism he brings up are that foreign researchers take official Chinese statistics and at face value, and attempt to apply them to all of China, while ignoring the enourmous disparities between various regions. Read the whole article in English or Chinese.