To those who are teaching English in China, I'm very curious about whether this is true or not?

Question

There is this arguement in below YA, an asker said that the moves of American teachers in China were closely monitored by the Schools or Chinese government / secret agents, and camaras were installed at the entrances of your accomodation / buildings, ...etc... below is the link... is that the real fact?

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AuHtflPHBfP7m9s7wYQqSeXty6IX?qid=20070510154046AAwB1tH&show=7#profile-info-418d2e9812dceb72c6c1d038184e789baa

Please let me know whether you guys are in the situation of what the asker said in his question. If so, tell me why you are still staying in China? (Though I do not believe Chinese govenment would waste energy / time / money on monitoring the moves of foreign English teachers!)

Other than English teachers, any expats who are working in China are suffering what the asker of that Q said?

To Jackson,

You need to leave China asap or consult the doctor asap, I feel so sorry for you, if what you feel was true to you! But I do think you need to see a doctor before it is too late!

LOL @ Jackson ....^.~...!

I'm asking those who are currently staying in China, not those who have never been to China but saying that they know the facts, ok? I myself travel to China very often but as I'm a Chinese, I do not feel any thing weird or being monitored. That's why I posted this question to ask the expats for knowing the truth. Thanks a lot if you are telling me the what you truely feel and you are in China and doing fine. Cheers!

How silly.., sigh, you all know me that I'm proud to be a Chinese, 100% Chinese, this bush_family..."accused" me I posting things here to pretend to be American...blah blah.., LOL... that's the funniest line I've read in his answer! Totally, I wonder what kind of Top contributor he is in YA? I have a feeling that this YA is kind of scary too! Food & Drink is better! Even sometimes people ask why Chinese eat dogs or cats or rats.. etc. silly questions there as well, still not as extreme as in politics!

By the way, Aileen isn't a common Chinese name!!!! It is the Scottish form of Eileen and Eileen is an English name originate from the Greek name - Helen means "light". It is just my Yahoo id, nothing related to my Chinese name! This also shows us you know nearly nothing about Chinese culture nor common Chinese name but just guessing it because I put an _ to cut the word into 2 parts! Google "Aileen" or "Eileen" or "Eilleen", you would find the information!

Answer 1

Good Question Aileen. I always hear these stories of spying, but I've never seen any proof of it, and I've been wondering myself what the other people in China think about this.

As for myself and my wife, we have complete freedom to do whatever we want, when ever we want. Frankly, I kinda wish we did get spyed on, because some of the other foreign teachers I've met deserve to get booted out of the country for what they do (criminal, and immoral acts to say the least). There is no way they can monitor all websites and email addresses that you have access to, and I've never seen any sign of being watched, or my emails being monitored.

I've been here for two years now, and the idea of the chinese government employing spies to watch us is perposterous. So far, I have only met one foreigner who believed that her phone calls and emails were monitored, and she was kind of a wack job to begin with. She was young, naive, and was basically afraid of everything, .....even her own country.

This has been my experience, and the expeirence of every other foreign teacher that I have met in China so far. Perhaps some schools are more protective then others, and keep an eye on their teachers a bit more. But I'm sure those teachers still have their privacy, and their freedom to come and go when they have no classes.

Answer 2

My boyfriend and I have been teaching in many different parts of china since 2004.
We work at a private boarding school, very lush...but there are no security cameras. the police here have to police so many people that what would be the benefit of monitoring foreigners buying their shopping and returning from class?
if u check into a hotel u must have ur passport details recorded, but this is the same for all people in china...including Chinese (who use their id instead)
when u begin work u check in with the local police station. this is so they know u have a permit to live here legally.
some schools lock their front gates at night, these are because they are often boarding schools and don't want the children sneaking out. other schools (like this one) have 24 hour guards, so if i want to head up McDonald's at three in the morning I'm absolutely fine to do so!
my friends come over, stay the night, we blast our music on the weekends, we watch movies loudly...it's fine, same as the west!
My boyfriend and i love our jobs, are used to the culture, and feel quite comfortable here. we plan to raise eventually children here. it's now our home - and not a bad one!
hope that helped!

Answer 3

Hi, I am an American that now lives in China.

When I first came I was very afraid of my new home. People back in the States told me things like how bad China is and why I should no go.

When I was on the plane the image of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacres just won't get out of my mind. But as soon as I got to Beijing airport my first thought was: 'Am I realy in China? Isn't China a Communist nation? If it is Communist then what is a KFC and a Starbucks doing here?'. As I took a taxi to go downtown, my worries are quickly gone. There are no tanks on the strees, no spies watching you and there are no propaganda posters at all! What they have are cars from all over the world, friendly people helping you when you need them and posters of Coca Cola and Fanta soft drinks.

China is a great places to visit, as long as you don't protest on the streets you will be fine. I can watch TV shows from all over the world and even American Idol! I can eat, drink, say and do everything I want.

All the talk about how you will be spy on are just good old ignorance and fear left over in the Cold war when the threat of communism was at it's peak.

This is to all Chinese people, we as American deeply respect and honor your great culture and the greatness and hard working ethic that embodies the Chinese people as a whole. We do often dislike your government, but we know things are improving and I am sorry if there are some silly people out there, please don't judge the US base of the shameful behavior or them.

Oh, BTW, I was born and raised in the US. I am a registered Republican. I am an American and proud of it but that doesn't mean I have to insult other people from another countries. The world should just get along and respect each other.

Answer 4

Hi ai leen , if you would have spend a little more time reading then you would have seen that it is written by one person that warns people about one school in China , he also write that he worked at several other schools where he was happy and did not feel that he was under surveillance, also one should consider that he was teaching at a aeronautical institute , these institutes around the world have cameras and keep a track on whoever is teaching there . SO i guess it is true that one school may have been not so good or may have been monitoring there teachers . but i know for a fact that many foreign teachers in china have a great time and feel very happy in china

Answer 5

These answers are ancient history! Things have changed a lot including the Chinese laws. Try this 2014 answer:

http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=620155

So to some degree they still keep an eye on us, but not 24/7.

Answer 6

I wouldn't be surprised if "some" of it is true. The old communists wouldn't really give anyone 100% freedom whether they be native or foreigners.
My 2 bits is that I doubt if they do target English teachers as a special group with extra monitoring requirements, although it would be pretty easy for a spy to pose as an English teacher.
Besides, it is common to be under survelance in public nowadays. Just take a day tour in London city center and you will know what "survelance" really means.

Answer 7

I got an interesting story for you, I manage a group of English teachers here in China and one day two of them were talking in their apartment, one mentioned that she wanted a new broom, 10 minutes later there was a knock at the door, it was a school offical with a ........................ NEW BROOM

I also had a friend that lived in a hotel and it was bugged, but, I am not sure why it was, he found a few devices in his room, but this was about 8 years ago, it is really not a big deal, I often think that they are juts wanted to protect the foreigners here, they have the best intentions in mind, I was on a summer English camp once and we were being monitored for sure, in fact they wanted us to know they were there, but I really think it was for our protection more than anything else

Answer 8

You will need to hire some qualified teachers that have certification ( toefl , etc. ) Dont hire just anyone off the bat. You should locate a professional head hunter to find help.

Answer 9

For an answer, please just read part 4 of my answer to the question from a_bush_family_member.

Edit:

After spending a few hours reading the Q&A or the user a_bush_family_member.All I have to say is this:

His understanding of China and the rest of the world is pathetic. From now on, I will ignore all the things that he is posting. I have better things to do then waste my time reading rubbish and BS. I was hoping for some good debate here on Answers but seems like he is not my cup of tea.

He is just a whimpering hypocrite that lives in his imaginary "almighty" America. He is a lier and a loser, he is only willing to see the things that he want to see.

On the site that he posted to claim that China sucks (Nate's China School Review-www.ChinaSchoolReview.net) have many good reviews saying that China is great. Here are some of them:

'You have absolute freedom in your class and the staff is ready to assists you any time, 24/7.'

(http://www.chinaschoolreview.net/index.php?module=reviews&func=showcontent&id=156)

'The school does provide nice benefits: round trip air fare, a fabulous 3 bedroom apartment to share with another teacher (or a rather drab, poorly constructed one to have by yourself) with a washing machine within a 15-20 minute walk of the school, paid utilities, a Z visa, etc.'

(http://www.chinaschoolreview.net/index.php?module=reviews&func=showcontent&id=152)

I’ve worked for two schools in China, and would recommend them both to anyone.

(http://www.chinaschoolreview.net/index.php?module=reviews&func=showcontent&id=22)

See? He is only willing to see thing that he think will help his cliams and just ignore the ones that he don't like. If the evidence contradicts what he think is right he will just act like they are not there or use his editing tricks to show people only the parts that he want us to see and tost away anything that he don't like.

His 'prove' on this page is a good example. On one of his claims he showed that a teacher in China wrote "The school is closely monitoring each of your moves, and you enjoy absolutely no privacy (there is a camera at the front of the foreign teachers' building, and you don't have the right to welcome friends at your place, or they start threatening you; I heard from the newcomers who now live on the new campus that they are locked up after 9 pm by a person who puts chains on the front door of their residence building". Now, what he is posted is realy on that page but he just ignore a line then he thinks will not help his claims. The line is 'I had already worked in several Chinese schools before, each of them being satisfactory'. If you don't belive me please just vist the website below:

http://www.chinaschoolreview.net/index.php?module=reviews&func=showcontent&id=145

His Q&A is just offensive to open minded people from all over the world. He is posting loaded question and answer other people's questions with incorrect and grossly exaggerated lies.

No matter what you do just don't read things posted by a_bush_family_member because you want to find facts. Read them because you want to have a good laugh or see how stupid an educated and well-fed person can be.

This will be the last thing I am going to post about 'a_bush_family_member'. I am going to get a life and find better thing to do. He can keep on defending the undefensible and make up things to attack other people from all I care. I don't give a rat's butt about that thing any more.

人民萬歲！

Edit 2:
Also, 'a_bush_family_member' have problem reading as well. 'a_bush_family_member' claims that 'Ai-leen'(The asker of this question) said she is not a Chinese. But if you read what wrote you can see she had never said that. She wrote 'I myself travel to China very often but as I'm a Chinese...'. SEE? One more of his tricks!

Answer 10

China is not a democratic country. there are alot of goverment agent or so called spy in China.

Why Chinese Government is monitoring the movement of foreigners especially those who haev the potential to bring in Christianity into China. Bear in your mind, America is a Christian country so they are afraid that Americans will bring in their Christian thought or philosophy into its country. There are actually spying whether those English Teachers have anything to do with religion especially Christian.

Alot of Christian Groups in China are in Chinese Government "watchlist"

So please do not be dishearten. Die and live for the Gospel of the Kingdom!