Chris goes to China…

So, I’m officially an “Expert”… I’ve never been called that before, so expect me to dwell on it on every post from now on…

So what does it mean? “Foreign Expert” in China? Well, naturally I’ve been digging around on the net and this is what I’ve found out:

• Who can be considered foreign experts working in China?

1. Foreign educational, scientific, cultural and medical experts
2. Foreign economic, technical and managerial experts
3. Representatives of foreign experts’ organizations and resident representative offices of personnel intermediary agents ratified by the State Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs of China and registered by industrial, commercial, administrative departments (managerial, profit-making) or civil affairs departments ( non-profit-making)

• “Foreign experts” is a term for those foreign specialists who are invited to work in China to meet the needs of the Chinese economic construction and social development. Once approved by the departments concerned, they can be employed to work in China as foreign experts.
• According to the ” Civil Lawsuit Law of the People’s Republic of China”, the “Administrative Lawsuit Law of the People’s Republic of China ” and the “Contract Law”, foreign experts enjoy the same legal rights and duties as the citizens of the People’s Republic of China. If the courts of the concerned foreign expert’s country employ restrictions over the rights and duties of the Chinese citizens in their countries, then equivalent restrictions will be employed over these foreign experts in China.
• Foreign experts can enjoy preferential treatment given by the Chinese government and will be praised or awarded for their good performance by the local governments or their work units. The highest award is the “Friendship Prize” given by the Chinese government.

So there you go… At least I will be equal to all Chinese nationals, that’s a great pluspoint! But I’ve heard also that the FEs get a lot of preferential treatment.. I’ll report here if that’s the case, for now I will keep an open mind!