Legal Question in Civil Litigation in China

Hello.

I'm not sure which area of law this question belongs to.

Two years ago I was working at a Chinese university as an English teacher on a 1-year contract. Eventually I grew more and more unhappy with my working conditions and didn't feel that the university listened to my complaints.

Finally it seemed my last way out was to do a "midnight run" (like a few teachers at that university had done before me). This means leaving in the middle of the night, just leaving the keys and an explanatory letter behind, to go back to my home country.

I recently heard from a friend working for another school in that city that the local police had informed other schools in the area that they had registered me on some nationwide database, which would prevent me from entering China for the next five years. I find it hard to believe, since all I did was breaking a contract, but I can see that the school was angry since I left during the first semester.

This year I am planning to go back to China with my family to visit friends, and have received a visiting visa, but I'm starting to have second thoughts because of what my friend told me.

Does the PSB have the possibility to do such a thing just because I broke a teaching contract? I have heard about many other teachers who broke their contract and went to teach in another city, and they didn't seem to have this problem.

If I do go to China, should I expect to have trouble with the authorities?

(My Chinese friends tell me this is nothing to worry about, and that I can go back without problems, but it doesn't feel 100% safe.)

Is there any way to find out if I'm in this database before going to China?

How serious is it to break a teaching contract in China?

I'd be very grateful for your reply.

With thanks,

S


Asked on 11/25/09, 2:45 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Freda Liu

Hello S,

Generally speaking, to break a teaching contract does not lead to any prevention from entering China. The following events will lead to prevention for certain term: illegally entering or exiting, illegally residing, failure to apply for inspection of residence certificate or refusing hereof, secretly working without prior approval, ilegal acts on visa, visiting unopened area without prior approval, etc.

However, if the school reported to the PSB that you had committed any of above events, it's possible that you had been prevented from entering China.

You'd better retain a local lawyer to make a check for you.

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Answered on 11/29/09, 9:01 pm


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