I think you have sized up the leaders very well indeed; however, we shouldn't expect them to change because we deign to teach in China. Some other poster, Magister, I believe, said, being able to speak mandarin shouldn't be a prerequisite for the job; I never said it should be, but this is up to the people who control the schools, the Chinese.

Yeah, I really tried to learn Chinese. Sometimes I'd practice for 2-3 hours a day for weeks on end. I had scores of books and programs. But Chinese and I just don't mix well. I found the more I learned the more confusing it got, because they just re-use the same words over and over, and they are all usually one or two syllables.

Anyway, whoever thinks that knowing Mandarin to teach Oral English should be a prerequisite would be very lonely in China, as so few people could learn Mandarin passably, especially to work on a salary equivalent to working in fast food in their homeland. Besides, one doesn't need it to teach Oral English.

Lastly, uh, my Chinese was pretty good, actually, but that didn't help really with leaders. Well, the president of the university liked me, but other leaders saw me as "arrogant" and as a "threat." First of all, they have no choice about having foreigners or not. All public unis are required by the government to have foreigners. But that really mucks up with the hierarchy. Let's say someone is in a position of power more because of connections than ability. A foreigner can size up his English ability in less than a minute. The foreigners are generally the experts at English, which subverts the power structure.

Quick story. Once I was helping a student with a speech. She'd written, "My mother together with me went to…" I told her we wouldn't say that, we'd just say, "My mother and I went to…" and add "together" at the end of the sentence optionally. Anyway, I wrote a correction on the paper. Some leader then told her I was "wrong." Wanker. My textbook was filled with such atrocious grammatical errors I couldn't use it, because it would reinforce the student's "Chinglish". Funny thing is the Chinese, some of them, think they can speak/write English better than we can. those books could have been easily fixed by just about any half-educated foreigner.

Also, knowing Chinese and Chinese culture can make one more of a threat and a nuisance to the leaders. Generally, green teachers are preferred, as long as they have the right look and some credentials. For one they can be cheated.

That said, there are tons of wonderful people in China, it's just that the institutions are going down the toilet, an the once safe haven of public institutions has now been poisoned and they are trying the same sorts of schemes one used to only see in private businesses.