@daithi
There are a wealth of professional management, project management, etc opportunities coming to Yunnan and the greater south, west, and central provinces of China. China and especially the inland provinces lack professional management across all sectors, so for a limited time, the windows will open for expat leadership in the areas of high tech, rural and municipal agricultural and environmental sectors, renewable energy sectors (NOT utility scale), healthcare, IT, etc ad infinitum.
China is still a developing country, despite the outward appearances which technology masks, especially in the inland provinces and these are the focus of the 13th Five Year Plans and beyond. EVERY economic industrial sector will see growth, once freed from the shackles of corruption and government innovative sloth.
Japan and even the USA went through the same processes with each successive industrial revolution as those countries geared up again and again, to become world class players and leaders.
Teaching is still an absolutely mandatory requirement, but teaching will migrate to bi-lingual English Chinese, as it already has in many advance management programs.
Several years ago - it was rare to find experienced or certified project managers - PMI certified project managers are beginning to ramp up - even here in the inland.
One can wait for the opportunities to arrive, or create them one's self. The Kunming expat restaurateurs and even the gokunming website are excellent examples of pioneers breaking ground in the west of China. The international five star hotels - while not always perfectly successful, are also harbingers of things to come.
2018 marks the year when China's protectionist barriers will begin to come down (albeit, Chinese style). Even with a domestic growth of 4-5%, this still far exceeds the growth rate of developed countries' economies - and those foreign companies are coming for a slice of that pie, but windows of opportunity don't remain open forever and China is an incredibly quick study - they already occupy several of the top slots for super computing technologies, despite US embargoes on those leading edge technologies. China has yet to field its own domestically designed and produced jet engines. Healthcare IT systems and electronic patient record systems are a virtual greenfield. And of course, the financial sector will absolutely begin sucking global talents into China.
Alibaba recently co-produced the latest Star Trek movie - China's domestic movie economy, which is also part of its soft power projection, is ramping up, and all the related industries that go with it (such as advertising agencies).
China has domestic products which are greenfield in most foreign countries, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine - still regarded by the west as superstition, but increasingly gaining respect and prominence as a science based alternative to traditional western medicine.
On top of all that - responsibly managed companies as opposed to the typical meat grinders that have become the global standard - example employee owned companies.
China suffers from massive pollution, over-fertilization and pesticide pollution, heavy metal pollution of the food chains. Massive opportunities if one can develop business cases and revenue models NOT dependent on sucking money out of Beijing - hence the government's increasing focus on PPP (Public Private Partnerships). Even Japan's newly elected government has announced an incredulous growth plan of 20% over the next five years, in time for the Tokyo Olympics, heavily based on the PPP model.
Opportunities are virtually infinite. The massive uptick in English language training schools in Kunming alone should be an indicator of change - as the result is directly opposite what one would expect given the decrease in significance in the gaokao.
And I wax economically evangelical on economic opportunities in China, especially the South, West, and Central provinces. As for the alleged economic differences between XiJinPing and Li KeQiang - I believe Xi has marked the long-term strategy of China - the strengthening of domestic infrastructure, starting with a lattice of high speed rail networks. Li is probably more focused on the shorter term goals of sustainable prosperity, so I don't currently see them as conflicting, but mutually complementary (just my opinion based on virtually zero knowledge of what those two and their respective supporting organizations are really up to).
Many of the more senior university level expat English teachers I've had the good fortune and honor to meet, typically seed their classes heavily with work experience from their respective fields of expertise, to include extensive industry experience.
Change is coming - and we all know, people hate change - even if it's for the arguably "better".
Google and others make profit from spam mail - those annoying click ads (THANK YOU gokm for NOT falling into that trap) - but China's equivalent and some may say copied social media platforms are executing a plethora of social service ecosystems (in addition to ads) - as the recent gokm WECHAT thread opined.
The opportunities for cross-pollination are infinite. It's not traditional warfare, but the opportunities for economic pioneers and heroes, who demonstrate social responsibility above pure profit is right here in front of us.
