He's lived there for eight years. He's American, married to a Chinese, well native of the region. They're not Han. They're China's largest minority, originally from Thailand. He works in software development, so he thinks he's been in their sights for a long time. In fact, I use a piece of software he helped develop. Yes, the 13 hour time lag is a problem, but neither of us thinks that's the big problem. We sort of work our exchanges around it. He gets up early, so my email is normally waiting on him. However, I had to tell him I wouldn't answer anything coming in after 10PM, because I can't vouch for my competency then.
Our email exchanges have been smooth, except for the occasional strange lag. Looking at the content, I can sort of predict when they're going to hang up for a second look. They're very suspicious of anything which could be code.