In the department of physics, Nankai University, the Phd could only get 100 dollars per month for the first 2 years and 300 dollars per month for the last 3 years. Even less than a cleaner in any other countries.
In Swiss, Phds could get 4000 dollars per month, in US, Phds could get 2000 dollars per month, in Australia, 1000 dollars.
Why in the department of physics, Nankai University, Phds are so poorly treated?
The following shows a professor named Yaan Cao in the department of physics, Nankai University.
http://site-1527500-2076-8234.strikingly.com/?fbclid=IwAR32NwdC7IaEOqBC2qjJm9YIBJkEO4RK8iHsBwX6vzoyKDFkBj2S-Svf_3I
In Prof. Cao's lab, the Phds have to work with strong acid, Aqua regia, toxic gas and Lead compounds all day long , but could only get 100 dollars per month, not enough for living.
Prof.Cao always tells lies to Phds(2000 RMB prize for every published paper), which, actually, never come true. Aslo, he always gives fake promise(fake paper promise) to master students to induce them into trap (work as a Phd in Prof Cao's lab without getting paid).
What is worse is that, Prof.Cao arrears of wage of all students for one year, so the masters and Phds have to pick up waste food in the trash can for living.
Prof. Yaan Cao uses academic funding to enjoy high-priced meal in hotel and buys computers for his sons , Chi Cao and Han Cao to play games. But he is so mean to his Phds and they could not get a cent after hard work, which is also heavily toxic. His graduates have washed beakers and make toxic samples all day for years, who know nothing about math and computer and could not get a job with salary more than 500 dollars per month.
Another thing is that, in Nankai University, Phds could not get a master if he/she quit the Phd, unless he/she give back all the Phd salary earned, so many Phds in Nankai University live in slavery and hell but could not quit（this is Power policy designed by the leaders in Nankai University, to make the "slave” could not quit when find cheated ）.
Here attached the photo of the "Slave owner" (Yaan Cao) in Nankai University.
Interesting post. How your salary is comparable to other units in China?
Regards
GB
Who pays the salary? Where the money comes from? There is no governmental agency that regulates the rules of master and PhD courses as well as the salaries or scholarships?
There is governmental agency that regulates the rules of master and PhD courses as well as the salaries or scholarships . But in China, it's useless.
In China rules are made and put into use by leaders of universities, they could make them at their will and for their own profit.
Prof.Yaan Cao have even used scientific funding to buy expensive laptop for his sons to play dota. He could escape from any punishment just because he is familiar with the leader of the department of physics, Nankai University, Prof. Yongfa Kong, who have also took bribe from others and disobeyed the law for for his freeloading in Taishan Sports Industry Group Co., Ltd.
related
https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/57891/academics-in-china-promoted-via-connections
also https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/104541/persistent-issues-with-salary-pay-as-a-postdoc-in-china-what-can-i-do?noredirect=1&lq=1
Persistent issues with salary pay as a postdoc in China: What can I do?
I am a third-time postdoc, and had never before had problems with getting paid. For almost two years now I have been a postdoctoral fellow at a university in southern China. This is my first experience in Asia, and thus I am not sure of how common the situation I am facing is. Communication is arduous, not due to language differences, but a number of cultural traits which are hard to explain.
At the end of my previous contract, I contacted many institutions for job opportunities. I did not plan on accepting yet another postdoc, but these colleagues here convinced me (> 100-long-email negotiation) that I'd be paid a good salary, enjoy a good work environment, and easily take an assistant professor position as soon as conditions allowed. To make it clear, I signed a postdoctoral fellow contract for a 120k RMB salary per year, with a promise of an extra 60K RMB per year to be provided by the college. There are some extras on the contract, such as 10K RMB for purchasing a laptop, and reimbursement for moving expenses (to date, I never saw those).
I was instructed to apply for a visa after signing the contract. I needed a certain official document about which they claim they were unaware. After further email exchanges where I had pictures and links about the document, it took 2 months to get it by mail. This delayed my arrival btwo 2 weeks from the start of the contract, but over email they said that was no problem. In reality, they never paid me that 1st month while dismissing it by saying "probably will fix that later".
Another full month came without any pay, and apparently the administration couldn't agree with the bank on spelling my name, but I never knew the details. After many trips to the administration to find out what was wrong, I was paid ca. 5,500 RMB for the month. I tried to complain but no one would understand me. Then the confusion started.
I will try to summarise below as best as I can. It is really complicated, and everyone tells me "not to worry".
- I get paid ca. 5K RMB as fixed salary on the 5th-6th every month.
- Around the 25th they pay me another instalment which is highly variable, typically within 1.5K-4.2k RMB. (Tends to be higher before long holidays).
- After one year I got ca. 90K RMB, irregularly paid out of the contract's 120K.
- Only after aggressively complaining, hinting a lawsuit, I received 100K out of the promised extra2x60K. (divided in 3 irregular transfers, made by some 18-y-old undergrad, late at night)
I get more info only by pressing uncomfortably hard. I was once told I'd get 13 payments per year (never happened). Then I was told some unspecified large sum is retained to fund my expenses to any trips/conferences I might wish to attend. I was not clearly informed of when or even if I would get the withheld amount. Few other postdocs openly discussed this problem with me, and they said (one Chinese and one foreigner) they had the same issue. The Chinese postdoc recently was offered to move to a new salary regime where he now gets a fixed, higher salary (took him months to tell me).
To make things even more complicated:
- I have found in my internal access system some separate account originally containing 40K RMB under my name (some "funding" mentioning my name), which is being used to apparently pay internal procedures. Upon asking about it, I was told to "not worry about that". There are currently 80K RMB and I do not know what to do. I hear that suing is usually not advisable in China as lawyers ask for huge fees and judges tend to favor local standards and influential institutions/persons, plus the defendant will typically delay forever by refusing to engage.
I wish to ask whether anyone here had a similar situation, and would know what could be done? Particularly in China?
Before you ask: further unmentioned issues not directly related to salary finally did not make this a "healthy work environment". I am now informally told that "it is really hard for foreigners to get accepted locally as assistant professor because getting a major NSF grant is required, and that depends on significant connections (guanxi) and understanding of Chinese language/culture". Not that I was planning on staying longer, but just to clarify.
* UPDATE * 02/04/2018
I finally left China yesterday. I will summarise the chain of events and the current situation. I think I understand most of their scheme now.
About two months prior to my departure I started pressing the administration about the rest of the salary. They insisted a large, unspecified part, would be paid as soon as I finished all necessary exit procedures correctly. Moreover, the secretaries said a part of the payment would be retained as "taxes," but they were unable to specify what percentage nor type of taxes. Exit procedures included preparing lengthy reports which had not been requested before. At the same time they further reduced my salary, interrupting the last "2nd parts of salary" due to "unforeseen reasons" and said they'd try to fix that also at the very end!
After I quickly assembled reports and delivered all documents (signed by several professors who make it clear they are making some favor), the administration agreed to finally calculate how much they owed me. I went there several times only to hear back more nonsense. For instance they kept remarking they might not pay me for the last month "because I had delivered a final report prior to the end of the contract period" as they instructed!
Finally, after pressing them considerably, within 10 days of my departure they provided me their numbers. They would pay me a "reward" for completing documents, plus one month of basic salary, and promised a large sum adding up to the final amount... in exchange for invoices.
I confirmed with responsible PIs the need for invoices. They explicitly instructed me to buy invoicesfrom companies they'd recommend by paying 10-15% of the declared value to "reimburse the rest of my salary". They insisted this is common procedure, offering help to "find invoices to exchange". I was shocked and refused.
I went to the Principal Office with a complaint letter, in English and Chinese. I spoke with the sub-secretary for 1h. They explain that what is declared on the contract as salary includes a significant amount which is to be spent with research only, and that invoices ensure the university can pay/reimburse. They say this is detailed in rules in Chinese in some book somewhere if anyone had questions. I made it clear nobody had ever clarified that, it should be explicated in the contract, and that I could not deal bogus invoices in exchange for payment. I told them I could only provide true invoices, which they accepted as a clean solution. They thanked me for "bringing me a major misunderstanding to their attention".
Finally I purchased credit for services with biotech companies with about 5k USD off my promised contractual salary. Got the "rewards" plus some delayed payments. It is not crystal clear from the numbers where is the last month of payment (I haven't had the guts to sieve that now).
After being paid I contacted my Consulate reporting the events, letters. Mainly to ensure some authority was aware in case of any political revenge (e.g. unfair accusation, arrest). I finally left without any events. I avoided physical contact with the PIs, who refrained from answering any further emails after I refused to purchase invoices. A few hours ago the Consulate notified the situation to the local Foreign Affairs Office, and emphasised it looks very serious.
This is where I stand. I hope something will be done to at least stop these schemes ongoing with other postdocs. I am moving to publish the story in the international press, and possibly file everything to the Ministry of Education right after. I thank everyone here for providing insights and suggestions. Keep an eye on the news.
Academics in China - promoted via connections
My friend has told me his own story. He's a researcher and he's trying to publish his paper. His supervisor is a Chinese researcher, but they're working in the states. My friend has written all the code and contributed to everything for the project (including writing the paper). However, his supervisor is insisting to add three professors to the authors' contribution. In the contribution, it's clear my friend is merely a software developer while the other authors contribute the ideas, paper and case studies.
My friend isn't very happy because merely implementing an algorithm would not be a good career path for him. More importantly, those three professors did absolutely nothing, but they did indirectly provide funding for the project.
My friend is a fresh PHD graduate. His supervisor is an average post-doc, he's building his own career path as well. The supervisor told my friend it's normal to add unrelated names, something he'd been doing quite lot in China. In fact, he said everything about research in China is about connection. The more high-ranked names you add, the more likely those professors will "pay back" and find someway to promote you or land you a job/project later. He claims that's exactly why nobody cared Tu Yoyyou, before she won the Nobel prize. She was always a brilliant researcher but she didn't know how to use connections to make a better career path for herself.
My friend was further told that he would have a brilliant research career if he allowed himself be a software developer for this project. The professors wouldn't be happy if their names weren't on it. He was told it wouldn't be wise for him to being "blacklisted": it's not what you can do to make you a good researcher, it's about whom you know that distinguish yourself from other researchers.
His supervisor has written the authors' contributors for the three professors and is about to send the paper to a journal.
Question:
Is this normal in the Western world and what should he do?
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