In general, this whole thing about development has been a digression, in part brought up by generally stupid comments. I won't even say politically correct, as the stupidity of the previous charges defies characterization.

I think its safe to say that the business culture in Beijing is not in a developing stage, so therefore development, or lack of, is no excuse.
I have seen many plush offices of ESL companies, amongst them Hampson English, English First, and the desks you would see in them one would think belonged in Goldman Sachs.

So yes, I am in agreement that development is no excuse for the business culture. What is undeveloped, is China's legal system, which does not enforce against, or will not enforce against, bad business practices, whether they are by language companies, or any company in general. There is no disputing that China's legal system in general is an absolute disgrace, completely inexcusable, and has no place in the civilized world. That however, is a different discussion, and not relevant for a thread discussing language companies.

"In fact, there have been far too many posters on this board defending [edited] "school" owners in China, their deceit, cheat, lying etc. by saying China is still a developing country and and not the West. That is what I name that racism and bigotry"

If that is what you label racism and bigotry, then you have a very funny definition of the term and need to consult a basic English dictionary.

There is no denying China is not developed by Western standards. True its not undeveloped in the vein of Africa or Afghanistan, but it is lacking in certain basic requirements of a business culture, namely contracts that are honored and meaningful, and basic workers rights.

I am quite aware that ones experience as an English teacher in China is considerably more cushy than the life of many of China's proletarian.

Take for instance undocumented, migrant workers, who emigrate from provinces like Guizhou, Yunnan, Qinghai, and Gansu, and work long hours, are super exploited, and create a downward wage pressure on many workers in the cities.

China has undergone perhaps the biggest mass migration in history. The amount who have moved from country to city is larger than the Irish population who emigrated to the US.
It's larger than the entire Jewish emigration to Palestine in the first half of the 20th century.

That aside, characteristics like this are part of a country's developing status, and in turn it has resulted in a business culture that lacks the safeguards and fallbacks we experience in the west.

In many ways, the surplus of expats in Beijing creates a reserve army of labor, though on a much smaller, and much less degrading scale than the plight of migrant workers.

I think we should be able to have an intelligent discussion about phenomena like this without people resulting to cheap tags like bigotry and racism.