In the Resources section at the top of this Forum there is a detailed breakdown from one poster of the pitfalls of using recruiters :

"Why Raoul Duke Wants You To Avoid Recruiters by Raoul Duke."

Presumably that information is of sufficient value for it to have permanent status on the board.

The way it is is that these days more and more Chinese employers prefer to use recruiters to obtain job applications on their behalf than when the late Raoul Duke had posted his advice. Just look at all the job ads on this board and Daves ESL Cafe from Chinese recruiters, the latter website charging for carrying those ads. If we all shunned recruiters, they'd be out of work fast. And just imagine if that happened how low the salaries offered by Chinese employers to a chosen applicant who applied direct would be. Chinese employers are equally as tricky as Chinese recruiters. After all, they're all Chinese!

I don't know exactly what the commission actally represents as a %, but I do know that about 5 years ago a fellow FT employed by a private university in Jilin province through a relative of his Chinese wife who happened to be a Henan-based Chinese recruiter received 8,000 RMB as air fare allowance whereas I received just 7,000 RMB via my Chinese recruiter from that university. I saw my fellow FT's employment contract, so it wasn't merely hearsay! At that time I was on 5,500 a month while he was on 6,000.