All of the above tells me said big agent can't attract enough native speakers to meet the local demand.

Yes, and it is the BLOODY STUPID CHINESE visa policy which has made it this way.A lot of FT's do not want to, for financial/personal/time reasons, to have to return to their home country to get police check and take care of the visa process there.By making it a CASINO game of CHANCE in Hong Kong, and refusing the possibility of getting a visa in Thailand or South Korea, they have made it harder for the long term ZHONG GUO TONG's and shot themselves in the JIAO bigtime!!!

Make things back the way they were, no criminal record check needed, invite letter to get visa in HK, and quelle surprise, the demand will be met!It is perfectly simple logic, but lost on the current CENTRAL government in PEKING which wants to make it harder for WAI GUO REN especially those with a chinese LAO PO to live and TEACH in China.

Thats my take, I will call a spade a spade.