China Promises Better Services for Foreign Experts — I have a few requests

2010-02-10

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Tuesday invited more talented foreigners to work in China, saying the country will improve services for them.

Wen said China pays equal attention to attracting both investment and talented personnel, while utilizing science and technology to achieve sustainable development.

This calls for an active flow of talented foreigners to China to help with the nation's modernization drive, the premier said.

He urged related organs to improve policy and service level for all the foreign experts coming to work in China. China Daily

Let's see. I have a few reasonable requests:

1. I could ask for decent pay for foreign professors, I suppose. But no, my part-time teaching gig pays the same as PRC national profs, and they need the money more than I do.

2. I could ask that the government retro-fits some heaters on the #300 bus here in Beijing. I don't like stumbling off a bus and almost getting hit by a car because I can't feel my feet after a 20-minute ride in what seems like a frozen food storage container.

3. I have a lot of possible requests relating to the subway. First, let's get rid of the Olympics announcements already. It's been a year and a half, sufficient time to record some new announcements, I think.

Second, the annoying English-language adverts need to go. They are played in an endless loop, over and over again. I guess the folks in charge don't care since everyone tunes out the English stuff anyway. But there are some of us who are being slowly driven nuts — if I hear the environment ad one more time, the one with the Brit school kid voice-over, I'm gonna puke.

Third, the English-language stop announcements really need to go. Besides the obsolete Olympics stuff, the person who was tapped to do the voice work had no idea how to pronounce Chinese; in fact, it seems like someone handed her a bad transliteration to use. If you had a really bad non-Chinese Chinese teacher, then no harm done, you're probably already familiar with the butchered pronunciation. For everyone else, it's embarrassing.

4. I could really see asking Grandpa Wen for F visas longer than six months. Not nice. Two years would be a lot better.

5. The best thing for me, actually, would be an end to foreign investment liberalization. As an FDI lawyer, the better the laws are, the less work for me. More complex, please.

Tags: China News