fiefoe

The storm finally broke, and it's one pitched battle after another.

Most of the factory directors were either wild men, or so stodgy that they drove us to distraction. In both cases, we weren't really in control. We owned the controlling stake in each business but we weren't in control.
...the officials whom we had met. I didn't like them. Their remarks were so predictable that it betrayed an inner reserve that was spooky. I couldn't decode their hollow flattery and elaborate words but I felt a heaviness and exhaustion about them.
The main building had offices arranged like monastery cells off long passages coated to waist height with dark green high-gloss paint. It was the absolute image of a Victorian {again} lunatic asylum.
a toughness that went well beyond the point of insensitivity
One system, which gives the filtered version and concentrates mostly on good news, is for public consumption. The clearer picture of the Chinese reality is reserved for nei can. This nei bu can kao - "internal reference material" - is a summary of the unvarnished truth to be read in private by the top leaders of the country.

"Mr. China"