- You are at the mercy of your employer because of your illegal status in China you cannot seek justice if you have to. He will take advantage of that and most likely do everything to screw you over.

But if your employer dares to cheat you, you can threaten to run to the PSB to expose him (and you). I used this method of obtaining justice for myself on three occasions, and I got what was Tn the contract, without having to involve the PSB! Thereafter, I was ostracised by my fellow staff. Fine, because I didn't like any of them. I preferred those local Chinese outwith the education system whom I had become friends with.
Another thing is, you can pull a runner or take on a second job without fear of retribution from your initial employer. Also, as the contract is illegal, your employer cannot apply its penalties!
The bottom line is that legal or not, you're there to fulfill your employer's need for an FT. He will not go out of his way to alienate you.

- You may have to fear detection by immigration with all the consequences it may entail. Paying a fine, being arrested and deported is not very nice, especially in China.

Been deported once for visa expiration. As a consequence, hauled off a Mongolian train by Mongolian immigration at the last Mongolian station before Inner Mongolia because the tourist visa in my cancelled passport was rendered invalid thereby. So, I had to buy a Mongolian exit visa at that station to be entered in my new passport which necessarily had a new Chinese L visa. The train was held up for 15 minutes due to this. As far as I was concerned, it was very nice, given that I had found a way to bypass the Chinese visa regulations in the knowledge that if I were taken to task by the immigration authorities, very unlikely, by the way, my punishment would be light, compared to what would happen to aliens caught doing what I did in the West. A good example of this is aliens in the UK on tourist visas reported for looking for work will face deportation. By contrast, in China it's perfectly legal to seek work while on an L visa.

- Everyone, without any exception, should abide by the laws of his host country - ideally spoken!

I must disagree - I say if the law is an ass break it!

Foxy has a legal status and has retired, so it is not "garbage" if he is doing things his way if he does NOT insist that other FTs should follow the same way. As far as I know, he has never done that. So why should it bother anyone?

Indeed, I have retired. My posts re breaking visa regs in China are there for information purposes only, should anyone wish to follow my example. I'm suire there are others out there who will benefit from the aforesaid information if they decide to buck the system here. Good luck to them all!