With the PSB wiping out foreign teachers left, right and centre, as an illegal in China, the ride is well and truly over.
No longer will foreigners be able to get away with teaching without a visa or degree; this can now be said with absolute confidence. From around the beginning of the 90’s until now, the very large gap that had been open to foreigners and recruiters alike is very quickly snapping shut.
To the detriment of the person here without a degree, whether they be the wandering middle class, war-torn escapee, financial crisis runaway or the student, it is a pretty crappy situation for all. Such unfortunates will either have to become awesome at dodging the authorities or not bother at all, for if you have not brushed up on the latest elite identity aversion techniques, they will catch you.
As China strives to become an internationally recognised developed country and maintain peace within its walls, giving away jobs to foreigners that are less than qualified for such does not seem the brightest way to achieve this. Hence, her recent and very serious crackdown on illegal workers in the country.
It all started with notarising degrees. At the beginning of last year, nationwide rules were set in place to not only have degrees notarised by the university from which they came, but to have them then notarised by the Chinese embassy upon application. This seems to have seriously culled a certain amount of the unwanted and indisposed.
The notarising of degrees has not proven enough for the government who have now given nationwide bonuses to officers as incentives. As kicks up the backside go, this one seems to be working; officers around the country have dreamt up sting operation after operation, squandering and catching illegals like flies at a BBQ.
“[In October 2016] 229 foreign teachers were arrested for not having a work visa (Z Visa) in their passports, or not having a real [degree]”, reported China Scam Patrol. In one such sting operation, “[a] recruiter was arrested and along with him so were some of the foreign teachers whose resumes they found in his briefcase. Things snowballed from there…those arrested were given a choice…go to jail for 30 days or pay a fine and allow the PSB to copy their phone contacts. Herein lies the problem, as thousands of teachers are now [being] collected into a PSB database from those 229 arrested”, said the China Foreign Teacher’s Union.
“PSB (Public Security Bureau) officers made “deals” with those arrested to copy their phone data and “recommend” at least 5 of their friends to be contacted by an undercover PSB agent who [had] set up fake “ESL recruitment agencies” in Beijing and Shanghai under various fake names”, continued China Scam Patrol. New or old to China, teachers are being warned all over the Internet not to give any information to recruiters, agencies or online platforms. China Scam Watch talk extensively about the latest problems of identity theft that have been brought to light through the selling of resumes found online.
With PSB officers are being paid a ¥2,000 bonus for every illegal foreigner they bust, they have become truly motivated and aggressive. It is estimated that the chance of detection is now as high as 50 percent.
Those arrested can expect 10-30 days behind bars depending on their “cooperation” and fines from ¥2-5000, after which they will be deported within 30 days not allowed to return for 3-5 years. Even worse for students caught working and arrested, they will no longer be allowed to finish their studies nor will they get money back for tuition.
“At present, we know Twitter Traps are working so well for the PSB that they may also start using Facebook. Last year they were exposed placing fake job ads on The Beijinger.com, Craiglist, Glassdoor, Echinacities, Sinocities, and ESLCafe”, reported the China Foreign Teachers Union.
