Thank you folks, for your responses to my two postings. Let me counter, if I may, the slightly condescending tones.

I am not a newbie here in China. I have been working continuously in China for well over six years, which is far longer than many others of you who are here and claiming to be seasoned experts on the international scene.

Moreover, since 1978, I have lived and worked at different times in eight different countries, these being the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan, Kenya, Tanzania, India and latterly China. Additionally I have visited and done business and/or recruitment in another twenty or so countries worldwide and some of them I have visited frequently.

So, folks, though you were not to know all this, you do now, so with respect, please dont talk down to me like Im some kind of fresh-faced backpacker or summer holiday itinerant. I have much more international employment experience than most, if not all of you.

However, I asked for comments and I got them, so let me respond.

The countries of the Arabian Gulf, in which I worked for many years, are without exception, oligarchies that are completely autocratic with not even a hint of either true democracy or the kind of democracy claimed by the communist regimes. The Rulers of these countries answer to nobody, and in each of them there are those foreigners who are scared of what these people can do when in reality the Rulers will only move on those who attack them or who are seen as an ideological threat. Each Country has its framework of law and those foreigners who are aggrieved in any way that can be proved, can, and many do, take the issues to litigation and if their case is solid, they usually win.

This also applies here in China but if you wish to make an official issue of your grievance, then be sure you have a case that is backed up by hard facts that the employer, if challenged in Court, cannot evade the existence of.

In the Countries where I have worked, there are also many employers who take advantage of their foreign employees but, like Chinese employers, they only do so because they know that in most cases those employees will not stand and fight. Most of them also know that those employees who will stand and fight are the ones not to be messed with. Sure, if you take these people to Court, you may later lose your job, but if your legal argument is well-founded on facts and not emotions and tantrums, then they lose not only the case but their face too.

Your job has to assume second place when you put the gloves on, for nobody will generally do that unless they have tried every other way and failed. Once that situation has been reached, you may as well look for another job anyway, without waiting to be fired, for the next mistake you make may see your employer wreak his revenge. I recently forced my employer to jump around to get my passport and visa returned to me when some fat-cat jerk in the upper levels of management was playing God with foreign teachers contract renewal processing simply because he was apparently in a dispute with someone else. He had held everything up for three months and was set to go on doing so until I threatened to take them into Court.

I have no doubt that when my contract comes up for renewal next year, I will not qualify but then who in his right mind would trust such an employer with his passport again? I wont, so the decision as to whether I spend a further year with this university is no longer in the hands of the university, for it has already been made.

As long as there are people like you, who plainly advocate what amounts to complacency there will be employers, be they in China or elsewhere, who will take unfair advantage of you. In this Country the courts can be quite hot on points of law no matter which party contravenes them, but you must be able to prove your grievance beyond any doubt. The issue of surveillance via telephones is not one I can prove and so I cannot do anything about it. I asked for comments in this forum more out of curiosity than intent. I said what I said in this forum; and to the two classes I have so far met since I learned of the matter; in the clear knowledge that my remarks would probably reach those responsible. But I doubt they will do anything about it.

Thanks anyway for your comments.

Dave