My preferred way to make money from poverty is that tiny investments can produce huge returns. There are also high search costs.

If you can find poor people who are really smart and haven't been permanently damaged by their experience (i.e. internalized failure, still believe success is possible, etc.), you can find some really amazing employees, partners, etc. People for whom "find a place to stay in California for a few weeks while looking for a job" is basically impossible.

That certainly works too, but I don't think you need to be corrupt to go that route.

Oh, my argument is that corruption (by other people) causes innocent/good people to be poor, and then other people who are self-interested (at least) and potentially altruistic can help those poor people.

Although generally my preferred form of helping would involve the corrupt people and some rope; much more efficient.

I think the Chinese govt. is roughly on the same page as you re rope, though I don't know how much of that is actually just a weapon to be wielded against opponents. I wonder how well that's been working at reducing corruption.

Unless it's all a shame, a lot of what the central Chinese government does seems great for China and neutral to good for everyone in the world. Most of the stupidity in China seems to come from provincial or local governments.

Perhaps, but you are assuming their labor is worth more than a trivial amount in the first place. If it was, then they wouldn't be unemployed or poor to begin with. And regardless, that has little to do with corruption. It's just underpaying an employee.