I had the standard Foreign Expert contract, which guarantees the right, in case of dispute, to obtain arbitration from the State Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs (SAFEA). But I'd never heard of anyone who'd invoked this right.
Two of my CFAU colleagues were political science academics on leave from American universities. They were sympathetic but thought it ill-advised to pursue the matter. One warned I might get "booted from China." The other darkly commented: "if you feel that you are the one to take on the chinese system then all the best. I do not think that that option is advisable." A British lawyer opined: "you'll probably just get escorted right to the airport. Don't make trouble."
Call me pigheaded — but again, a principle within me clashed with what people wanted me to do. I'd been fired because of unfounded hysteria. My contract promised government arbitration. Was I to assume that the promise was illegitimate without ever testing it — and remain forever ignorant of whether it had in fact been genuine?
I was not escorted to the airport. And I did obtain another teaching position, the following semester, at Lanzhou University. (I was open with them about the events at CFAU. The Chinese, employers included, have no trouble believing that in China, such things arbitrarily happen to blameless people.) But the government simply ignored my attempts to obtain arbitration. I persisted for a time — then settled for writing a detailed account of this story. It's available at http://urielw.com/china2/.
Article comments
1 - Bing
As a Chinese student in UK, I feel ashamed by what happened to you. One thing you might have known is that most of those would-be diplomats have special backgrounds. They enter the Chinese Deplomacy System via nepotism and people like them are called "TaiZiDang" or Crown Princes in China. They domineer over Chinese who need help abroad. They think themselves the owners of Chinese embassies and consulates rather than civil servants. They are ugly scars of China.
Thank you for your work in China.
2 - Uriel
Hi Bing.
I have indeed been told that kind of thing about CFAU on several occasions by people in China.
Thanks kindly for your comment.
3 - Frank
At a diplomacy school, you should understand that these are the people that will learn to lie and deceive for their country.
If they were really smart they would be at Beida or Tsinghua, but since they have connections they are at the school for guanxi reasons.
Rest in the knowledge that these types will face the reality of a market oriented china dominated by the beida tsinghua types anyway.
4 - Uriel
Actually, some of them were pretty smart (as documented in the full version of my story).