The story sounds kinda fake to me...

There is always a danger with paid denouncements. For one it feeds xenophobia.

shades of 1930s Germany, 1960s USSR/China, contemporary UK.

This is not a bad sign. In most Western countries people do these kind of things without being paid. And even when not suspecting the neighbor as illegal immigrant, you can always report the neigbor to the tax officials or some other officials - any of the hundreds out there.

In general, people are more inclined to mind their own business in East. As a generalization. Only money can serve as a bait here.

thanks for your wild generalisations Peter.

@liumingke: Sorry if I'm being a dunce and missing some sarcasm, but what are you talking about, African migrants making a mess in Europe, and what's it got to do with China?

maybe he is referring to Guangzhou? The post had a whiff of racism.

Or trying to deflect to avoid the focus on the huge number of those tutoring languages illegally.

what a horrendous crime, teaching people the thing they want to learn! Shocking.

You are commiting a crime if you are doing it and earning money from it illegally. And the majority of those illegal tutors are well aware that they are forbidden to do so.