Recently, the Minhang Police Entry and Exit Administrative Department of the Shanghai Public Security Bureau began renewing efforts to combat the "three illegalities" for foreigners: illegal immigration, illegal residence and illegal employment. It has recently been discovered that many illegal language schools are using so-called "knock off" foreign teachers.

Shanghai Police Crack Down on Illegal Foreign Teachers

Last weekend, while checking a Hongqiao foreign language school, the Minhang Public Security Bureau Exit-Entry Administration Office saw a juvenile foreigner teaching English to a group of young Chinese children. During the inspection, it was discovered that this young foreigner was only 19 years old. According to him, he came to Shanghai from England for a vacation, holding a tourist visa. Not only did the foreigner not have any teaching qualifications, but he wasn’t even a college graduate. After further investigation, the police discovered that this was, in fact, an illegal teaching institution.

During the clean-up campaign, the Minhang Police found similarly employed fraudulent teachers and illegal language training schools, indicating that this phenomenon is not an isolated incident. Many of these foreign "backpackers" spend their weekends at these schools to earn travel expenses. Many of these schools abuse parents and students’ naïve convictions that foreigners who are native speakers are automatically qualified to teach.

According to the Minhang Public Security Bureau Exit-Entry Administration Office, the employment of foreigners in China has a strict approval system. They must apply to the labour department for the "Alien Employment Permit" and to the public security department for a residence permit in order to work in China. If working in education, they need to report to the Bureau of Foreign Experts Affairs (BFEA) to acquire a "foreign expert certificate." To be qualified for a "foreign expert certificate", one needs at least a bachelor degree, two years teaching experience and a TESOL or TEFL certificate.

Since May this year, Minhang police received information on more than 100 cases of illegal employment and 40 foreigners were involved in illegal entry investigations, illegal residence and illegal employment. The Minhang office is currently working together with a number of formal foreign language training schools, helping to report illegal schools online and creating a MSN group where illegal foreign teachers may be reported; providing an effective platform for asking questions and sharing information.

Source: http://www.echinacities.com/china-media/shanghai-police-crack-down-on-illegal-foreign-teachers.html
Souce in Chinese Language: http://edu.ifeng.com/peixun/detail_2010_11/23/3203336_0.shtml