Major Shanghai Intern Crackdown

[yialanliu]

So in the past few days, there's been some major activities going on within the foreign companies that hire foreign interns.

Previously, the policy has been that interns could work for upto 6 months unpaid. Now the new rules is being enforced of 3 months unpaid. And it's actually enforced. What this means is that unpaid interns that once was not allowed for that long but never enforced is being cracked down. At the same time, payment to interns is also trying to be ended(since these typically are F visas).

My classmates at Goodyear will know their fate tomorrow and I'll keep you updated. Our friends at Adidas and Michelin have all been let go (transfered to Singapore and Thailand) and the last I heard, they said that Adidas and Michelin will not hire any more interns for the time being until they figure out what is the end result of this crackdown.

I work at a Chinese firm so I am unaffected. However, there is talk that this might extend beyond the limited cases of foreign interns in foreign companies. Nothing is really known yet but just wanted to give you guys a heads up because let's be honest, how many foreigners get the appropriate visas to work and get paid?

[yialanliu]

First update:

So a meeting occured yesteday with all the interns and with some officials. It seems very likely all of the interns will have to leave. The full official ruling will be given out next Wednesday.

On the Adidas front, Adidas got hit with a major fine as well as having all their interns leave.

This situation is making my advisors at Northeastern very antsy, especially since we have interns in Beijing as well, and myself at Ningbo. Our Beijing intern seems to be okay though (works for Amazon) no reports of officials visiting them or anything and even less here at Ningbo haha. The good news still is that Goodyear is continuing its stance of suporting interns and moving them abroad if necessary.

[yialanliu]

Final Results:

It's official, Chinese government want the interns gone. My classmates at Goodyear have all been transferred to Thailand and are planning to move within the next 2 weeks.

[roddy]

Split the grammar discussion off to here. Would really appreciate it if people could start new topics when necessary.