It is a clusterF, but how is it a money making exercise for the Chinese government and how can that have been their initial motivation for establishing the regulations? The new fees do not go to Chinese officials. This entire degree verification process is the result of well-connect wealthy Chinese citizens in Beijing finally discovering the 'man behind the curtain' in the FT industry in China: FTs are not teachers, cannot write English, cannot understand grammar, and have little or no general education. The expensive tuition these parents were paying to educate their brats was a waste of their money.

Anyone who has been in China (or France for that matter) for more than a year knows the cultural importance of bureaucracy and the 'red stamp'. Common sense and customer service are not concerns in any official Chinese procedure, why expect them now?

Yes: for the qualified FT with genuine credentials, it is an expensive and annoying process.

But the entire nightmare is the direct result of a decade of Sliverboys and FTs named after Mexican beers masquerading as educators.