Why a fourth stamp if it is a fault of USPS? I would mail it again without a new stamp.
Ya she just corrected this and said she didn’t use new stamps. That’s even better. Then it is just a long delay.
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I can confirm that putting a return address onto a piece of mail sent from the USA always bears the risk of getting it returned to the sender by USPS. A while ago a friend in the USA sent an envelope to me, my address written large in the expected spot (lower right side), the return address small in the expected spot (upper left edge). Both in the same Latin-script handwriting, but still the envelope was returned. The clerk at the post office told the sender to cross out the return address and to obfuscate both barcodes (USPS uses a black barcode on the front and a neon-orange barcode on the back of each mail piece), and this time the envelope arrived. It is one of my favorite items in my collection now, because it got cancelled twice with two different dates (on the same stamps of course). 
On postcards I never put a return address. Either they arrive or they get lost…
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Postcards, in my opinion, should be regarded as balloons released into the sky. Or messages in bottles floated into the sea. Some arrive, some don’t. It’s good when some arrive, but that’s the ‘name of the game’. I realise that I’m in a distinct minority here, not taking this seriously (enough).
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I’ve never had to add another stamp…only the original stamp has been used.
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I replied to Cremebrulee, who wrote about using a fourth stamp. I hope your card will arrive now.
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So there’s a company failing several times to perform its promised services, the service you paid for, and you shrugg it off?
Don’t know if that’s the last state of laidbackness or the ultimate surrender to a flawed world only ruled by fate.
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Very interesting to know that USPS requires extra postage for hand cancelling.
The UPU recommendation is to use both (the language&script used on the destination country, as well as your own script). In practice though, this is hard to fit on postcards and using just the destination script is often fine.
Regardless, it is important that the name of destination country is always written in a script/language that the sending country can understand. Hence: does it have China on the last line of the address? If it is written just in Chinese characters, that could explain why the sorting machine can’t figure out where to send it.
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I use the address provided by postcrossing and print it on a label. I some cases, the postcrosser will provide two addresses, one in their native language (non-latin alphabet characters like any of the asian ideograph forms, or Cyrillic or greek). In those cases I use the address that they provided that is in their native language. It is my theory that the postal system in their country is more likely to deliver such a card then if I send it with the address in the alphabet that they don’t normally use.
All that being said, I still write (or print on the label) the name of the destination country in the eating alphabet (in English in my case, as I am sending for the U.S.) at the bottom of that address. Once the sorting machine or sorting mail clerk knows the card is going to China, the rest of the address is really immaterial to them. But you do need them to recognize that it is going to China.
This method has worked well for me.
Kudos to you for your persistence!
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Thanks. This is what I do as well. My handwriting isn’t the best so I print the address and the Id and tape them to the card. In this case, the address was in Chinese Characters but it also had CHINA written in English at the bottom. This time I have crossed out my return address so either way I won’t be getting it back. I just hope it manages to make it for the receivers sake. Thank you.
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Confusing your address for the destination address could be it: was the Chinese address placed on the bottom right of a regular 6x4" postcard? I assume the return address was small, in some sort of sticker?
Another idea: did you buy the stamps directly from the USPS? Counterfeit stamps could be a reason for it to be returned — unlikely, but so is the situation. 