The last part about ft's taking the blame can only be legit if the Chinese employer didn't deliberately deceive them from the beginning. From my own experience as well as that of many others getting the potential employer to talk about what is and isn't provided was a challenge no matter what type of outfit the place was. Most places in China know they cannot provide living conditions that are up to standard, but because they have the local government in their back pockets it is not a priority that they care to address. If ft's really are to be blamed as you say, then they should probably give China a miss all together as there are simply too many pitfalls. Other countries such as Taiwan, Thailand, and Japan offer better alternatives.

Another good post, Dragonised. Yes, indeed, the Chinese employers are past masters at lying by omission in contracts. However, I still blame individual FT's for not questioning in detail about the contract wording; and failing to extract references from past and current FT's working at a particular school. I mean, are all Western FT's born naive; the Chinese think they are, and it's human nature to take advantage of this character flaw? I have stayed out of trouble in China, owing to my attention to detail. If you are lack-a-daisical it'll come back to bite you, and you have no-body to blame but yourself.