Russia in my mind "Crime and Punishment", probably has pretty strong concepts of these things, which is what it looks like your laying out. Interesting stuff.

Meanwhile, I find interesting, that West find something exceptional in Dostoyevsky. He is, say, noir novelist, good one, but working in specific genre. Another widely known Russian author - Leo Tolstoy with his "War and peace", it is also kind of very specific, heavy historic-philosophy genre. May be that specificity make them interesting for foreigners. :)

In China, it's like, it's smart to take any advantage you can, as long as it's not written out by the law.

And that is China law. Fact that some law is not written on paper, does not make it void in many cultures. And in many cultures could be opposite thing - it could be inapropriate to do things that is not prohibited by written law. And that is a law too.

I mean it works in the framework of China, because everyone assumes everyone else is going to cheat.

I know that this thing exists in China, but really it is not absolute. Not all chineese abide that law and cheat. But you are right, it will be reasonable take that law into account making deals with chineese.

It depends on meaning you attach to the term "law" - "system of society rules" or "some juridical texts". If you limit the "law" to the latter, you could easily fall into troubles in many places.