There is now a dearth of new FTs in China as a result of the heightened qualification and stricter, albeit inconsistent, enforcement of these regulations. The 'gaokao' national exam will be eliminating an English component, at least for most students. University English department student bodies have been shrinking for the past few years. I can not speak for the performance of the private language industry, but i suspect it too is under economic stress.

The result of these changes will certainly be: fewer graduating Chinese students will possess spoken English ability.

This is of little consequence. And I believe that the Chinese government agrees with this assessment.

You and I and generations of U.S. and British students cannot speak French, despite years of study. Our failure was inconsequential, because successful French business persons learned English.

The world is studying Mandarin. In Beijing and Shanghai and Guangzhou and Shenzhen, no one glances up at a laowai speaking Chinese anymore. They hear 'yingtonghua' every day.

Successful Chinese international business persons will still need to study English to be competitive, but the era of English for every Chinese student is over.

Which is nice.