MSG is a natural product. The consensus is that it is not harmful. FDA rated GRAS (generally recognized as safe).

I am sure the resident conspiracy theorists will have a different opinion, based on years of surfing the internet.

BOC may not be in many cities outside of Bangkok for exchange of money.

Agree the towns can smell. I think the cesspits are under the houses.

From wikipedia, who I trust more than posters on here

An expatriate (in abbreviated form, expat) is a person temporarily or permanently residing in a country and culture other than that of the person's upbringing. The word comes from the Latin terms ex ("out of") and patria ("country, fatherland").

Attempts at literal definitions of some words just don't work.

@tallamerican
I agree with you but the discussion is pertinent as someone is trying to discredit the validity of the original discussion through pedantry. Or maybe he is just trolling

Maybe not even the government, but perhaps a local headmaster or the wife of some local small time official. Crony-ism and nepotism are rife in Kunming, there are a lot of small time crooks who seem to have a finger in everything.

Retaliations can take many forms. You bad-mouth a group of people on the English speaking network. A group of Chinese start bad-mouthing an 'outsider' on both the guanxi and the local Chinese gossip net. Who do you think will come off worst?
When it comes time to renew licences you may find it harder than it needs to be. Your rent may go up. You may get more visits from small time officials, some of whom seek a little money (graft).
Local teachers may be asked by their headmasters to not recommend you, or even to suggest to parents there is a problem with you; a hint from a teacher is all that is needed, no accusations need to be made. With quality Chinese retaliation, you won't even know you are being attacked, you will just seem to be having a lot of difficult days.

The other thing to think about is this. You lose a lot of kudos when you badmouth others. This is the same in most cultures across the world. In China, if you make someone lose face, it is at the cost of your own as well.

If you do a blacklist the risk of retaliation is high.

You don't know who are other stakeholders in a company.