[quote=“MJB”]You are all missing an important aspect of how many of these crackdowns start. It’s not political, or a whim of the government, it all comes down to the rat.
The rat is a busted overstayer…I was here for the first big crackdown, back in 1990 and knew the source. From a small buxiban in Keelung (Jilong), it eventually resulted in an entire northern Taiwan raidathon. The teacher in question was a 3 year overstay, and had the choice of squealing out his fellow workers/friends (very long list) or going to prison. He chose the former, but at least had the presence of mind to warn some of the people mentioned.
From there, they were able to expand exponentially by offering the same deal to every illegal they caught. I was lucky at the time to have very good kuanshi with the local cops and they left me alone. But this was the birth of the alarm system, fence jumping, back door escaping escapades we see on occasion to this day.
If they are raiding schools in Neihu, then they’ve likely already caught someone and put on a bit of a “squeeze”. If this is true, then anyone working in the area is already marked, and whether they get busted or not depends entirely on the Schools “Kuanshi” with the local cops. Some things may have changed since 1990, but this aspect has not.
The cops went straight to my classroom during this first crackdown, had a look around (Kindergarten) and left. They went straight down the road and busted 3 foreigners trying to shoot out the back. My boss was well-connected, theirs wasn’t…End of story.
You’d be unpleasantly surprised to know how much the FAP actually knows about who works where. This is a good and bad thing. If you are a standup person who plays by the rules, most likely you are going to slide, even if you are “borderline legal” with some of the work you do.
The reality is that if your school is old and established you most likely won’t be hassled. The opposite is true if your school is an “upstart” and owned by a non-local.
If you work for an old time local, then you’ve almost nothing to fear,even if what you are doing is slightly illegal. If you aren’t…Fence hopping is a practiced art [/quote]
is this really the case nowadays? i’m dubious…mind you i can vouch for the rat system some years ago…i was asked to provide a list of 10 students who had employed me as a private teacher when i was sorting out a wee overstay problem some years ago…no list meant a spell in pokey so the filth said…again had to pull some guanxi to get out of it…