Topic: news Breaking Your Contract in China: New Consequences for Pulling a “Midnight Run”

One has to be very careful about trusting these articles. They are usually written with a bias. Often they are written by Chinese employers (or authors paid by Chinese employers) to discourage foreign workers to run away from their poorly managed companies. Most of these sites are loaded with fear and misinformation to push a specific end. Losing a foreign worker is bad news for a Chinese company. They are meant to protect them and keep track of them. When one of their worker's disappear, they look bad. Especially if it has happened more than once. Blacklisting is also very, very rare. China is such a large bureaucracy and has such a large population that maintaining any sort of national blacklist for hiring is completely non-feasible. If they blacklisted every ex-pat that had a problem with their company, there would be about 6 people left to hire. Most ESL schools are willing to hire the dregs of society to teach because of such a high demand and short supply. They aren't going to continue to decrease that supply. And the idea that they could potentially keep you out of China for three years is beyond absurd. Could you imagine the paperwork needed to have someone banned from a country for three years? And lawsuits? Perhaps if you are running a large corporation, and you try and skip out with millions of dollars hidden in your briefcase. The average ESL school doesn't have the time or the money to pursue a lawsuit against you. If every Chinese company sued their foreign workers, then there would be no lawyers, judges, or courts for any other issues in China.