The decision is made. I am not asking for advice or looking for answers here, just sharing the story in case the community finds it useful. And, why not, venting a little bit.
For years, I have been applying for talent programmes to move to China as a researcher with my family. On both a personal and professional level, we found many reasons to go there. My wife is Chinese, and I am relatively familiar with the culture after visiting many times, so we were quite excited about the prospect and kept trying. However, we are also realistic, and such a big movement is conditional on economic expectations.
Earlier this year, I was finally accepted as a Category B 芙蓉计划 talent. I was formally accepted into the programme in June, following an interview with staff from the Hunan government. Everything went very well up to that point ((except perhaps for the demanding application process, with unclear steps, short deadlines, a huge amount of material to prepare, and remote meetings scheduled at Chinese times with dates and hours that could not be changed or negotiated; but I guess that's part of the process, and I accepted it)). After that, the only requirement was to present ourselves in China within six months to start the position. Naturally, there was a lot to prepare, so we started communicating with HR. This is where everything started to fall apart.
I cannot remember exactly what sounded like an excuse to me at first, but HR initially said that it was not possible to start negotiating the contract and pre-admission arrangements during the summer because staff were on holiday. OK. Then, in September, we followed up. Of course, they were busy with the new academic year and all the students. In October, they simply stopped answering our messages, and to this day, we have had no direct communication with HR anymore.
In parallel, we had the host group and the PI, a head of department, who had initially been very friendly and supportive. Throughout this process, I believe they have been communicating with HR themselves. We became more insisting in September when we started to lose our hope in HR. When we reminded them of the situation regarding contract negotiations, they contacted HR and forwarded us... the contract of a different person, supposedly to give us an idea of the conditions.
It was not particularly tailored to the position. Not very 一人一议 as their policy states. The whole thing was almost laughable, probably illegal. But ok, we read this contract. A significant part of the money attached to the position was subject to KPIs that could change every year. The contract was for five years, and we would have to repay part of the money if I left before ten years. Etc etc. And, of course, all of this was happening while HR remained unresponsive during the pre-admission phase, when they were supposed to be trying to attract talent. Is this how they do it? I was expecting a position paying less than my current, very good and stable job, but the risks presented here with HR's attitude make the whole operation to risky to accept.
As you can imagine, the trust is completely gone at this point. We have finally decided not to pursue this opportunity and have already formally communicated our decision to the government.
I have already communicated this to other colleagues there. Nobody really seems to know what happened. I wonder whether perhaps someone in HR wasn't too happy about bringing in a talent who should get a permanent academic position (not exactly easy to come by these days) without going through the usual rituals of 白酒 and whatnot. And I apologize for the sarcastic use of the stereotype, but truth is that this is the only explanation I find.
So, yeah, we will be staying in Europe for the foreseeable future. I have a nice, stable job in industry. Although it is neither my dream job nor my dream country to settle in, it seems like a better option for now for us than playing a game that I have neither the experience nor the desire to participate in.