From where does it take 20 hours to get to Beijing? SFO to Beijing is just over half that.
Under optimal circumstances, not including airport time which can be considerable, flight time between New York and Shanghai is 15 hours.
Add in a few hours to check-in, clear customs, plus other nonsense and you're up to 18. Under ideal circumstances.
If you're talking about America and Europe? Nope.
Then there's Vietnam, which is very poor but growing over 10% / year and highly educated despite the poverty. There are also hundreds of millions of people in Indonesia and Malaysia.
I was speaking not of the US or Europe but the world in general. We don't live in the Eurocentric world of 150 years ago. The center of gravity now spans the Pacific.
Also this entire argument is utterly absurd. If you're upset about brutal domestic policies the last place you should be arguing in favor of is China.
The CIA is not responsible for suppressing the Tiananmen Square incident. Stop spreading bullshit.
You claimed 20 hours. I'm asked 'from where' and you weren't able to answer.
I'm not suggesting Beijing is the ideal conference location, even though I live there, but there's no need to spread FUD about how it can take such a long time for a developer to reach there.
Oh, and it takes me the same time to get to SF as it takes an SF-based developer to get to Beijing. Hotels are cheaper in Beijing. Salaries are higher in SF.