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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| China comes a-calling for US job seekers |
| 2009-10-25 |
| Many flew across the country, some drove for hours from neighbouring cities, while others splurged on exorbitant taxi fares just to get here despite the driving rain. At stake was something rare in these tough economic times: A job with some of the fastest-growing cities and industries. The anxious job seekers, numbering in the hundreds, crowded into the Hyatt Regency Reston hotel's ballroom over the past weekend. They handed out resumes and filled out endless application forms at the tables of many eager recruiters. It was a scene that would have heartened anxious United States politicians fretting over the growing numbers of unemployed in the country. But there was a twist: The recruiters were all from China, and the jobs available were in booming, bustling cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin. The Chinese, mostly local government officials, including representatives from personnel or talent recruitment bureaus, had travelled half way around the world to look for the best and brightest to play a leading role in furthering their cities' economic transformation. While the Chinese scouts chiefly targeted overseas mainland Chinese in the past, this time round, they broadened their search to include Americans as well. "We advertised the fair among Americans for the first time as mainland recruiters told us clearly that they would like to hire some Americans," said You Weishun, director of the North America Chinese Scholars International Exchange Centre, which organised the event. He said that 1,500 job seekers, mostly overseas Chinese, attended the three-day fair which started on Oct 16. It drew the biggest turnout of all eight annual job fairs the centre has organised so far. Nine in 10 applicants had either a master's degree or a doctorate. Recruiters from about a dozen provinces and cities, including north-eastern Jilin and Heilongjiang provinces, and Kunming city, the capital of south-west Yunnan province, made the trip. They were looking for expertise in fast-growing sectors such as finance, information technology, environmental protection and biomedical technology. "America's crisis is our opportunity," Zeng Lingheng, an official from Kunming, told The Straits Times. "Kunming is in the middle of upgrading and transforming its industries. We lack experts in many top positions who can take our industries and companies to the next level, to go international." |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 Nah, it ain't like the US. I know any number of people who work for Chinese companies and they all have horror stories. Most of them don't last more than 6 months. |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-10-25 22:13 |
| #7 just google H1B sweatshops or H1B exploitation. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-10-25 21:21 |
| #6 Not my experience when I hired H1Bs here a while back. My staff got competitive salaries, lived in the same kind of apartments their US equivalents did and in more than one case eventually became citizens. They weren't cheated, refused service in stores or pressured for bribes. |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-10-25 21:01 |
| #5 Chinese companies treat their workers like shit. No different from H1Bs in this country. Hires will be treated in proportion to their skill's importance to their business. Just like talented athletes, the general population will indeed get the bottom feed, but without the 'stars' you don't have game. I'm sure there are technical people the Chinese want in high demand and will [and can] pay. Particularly when one company starts to poach the skilled and talented workers of another. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2009-10-25 09:43 |
| #4 "America's crisis is our opportunity," Zeng Lingheng, Treacherous, plagiarizing communists! That's Rham's line! |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-10-25 09:20 |
| #3 gromky's right ... I've heard horror stories about the treatment of foreign workers in China (and not just Americans). And not just on the job. Blacks being chased out of shops and not allowed to buy food or other basics, water turned off from apartments until bribes are paid on an increasing scale, police harrassment with no recourse. |
| Posted by: lotp 2009-10-25 08:43 |
| #2 Hey, I'm game. Pick me up China. Americans vote for assholes that don't give a damn about employment. They betrayed me so why not? |
| Posted by: newc 2009-10-25 07:30 |
| #1 Ha ha ha...joke's on them. Chinese companies treat their workers like shit. It's a rare foreigner who can stomach the abuse and lack of planning. Besides, you'll always, always, always be a second-class citizen because you're not Chinese. The amount of projection regarding China is just staggering. People are putting their hopes, fears, and biases on display and don't even know they're doing it. |
| Posted by: gromky 2009-10-25 01:28 |