i think it's clear from Geezer's post that it seems like it's not the government, but instead a collection of schools working together to screw the foreigner. so the real issue is will the foreigner's allow themselves to "assume the position" and take it up the rear.

oh, another thing that get's me is when I talked to dong fang they made it sound like this is a government thing for kunming and they had no choice but to raise the fee to 8000. so I guess the point is, if you like the oppressive sadistic nature of dong fang, then you'll be happy as their student.

See if we can get Kunming Channel 6 TV to pick up the story. They have that sensationalist TV show about local wrongdoing in Kunming.

Anyone any contacts? I think there may even be a telephone number on screen to report abuse.

Yeah. Their number is 8099999.

@tigertiger I think that's a great idea. Bring it to the attention of the media and also your foreigner friends. Another suggestion is the chinese blogsite www.Weibo.com or sina.

@iliveinkm Which language school did consult with, the one that told you the government will not ask the schoosl to raise prices and showed you the related laws?

I went to Keats yesterday and met with the president of Keats. By August 12 5pm, they have not received any officially written notice from the government to impose restrictions on tuition fee to 8000yuan per semester. She also said that 4000yuan for 20 weeks is a very reasonable price and they will not raise their prices.

is ti ture??!!!
it's shocked me!
they(dong fang) really wants to raise their price this high?

well, thus far it sounds as if it's only dong fang. I know of 2 other students they told this to, and me. plus Geezer said he talked with them. Has any other schools said anything about this?

I think the "official notice from the Government" was just dong fang trying to get the foreigners to think it's out of the schools hands and they just have no choice. it takes the pressure off of the schools of the foreigners protest higher prices. where in reality it's just Dong Fang's lie in order to jack up prices.

This situation feels like it was a bad poker game. Dong Fang was paying was playing the big bluff using false information and misleading statements and hoped nobody would call. The problem is, that the only money on the table was the students.

The school thought they could get away with this by making two very big assumption:

The first is that foreigners are generally stupid, most Chinese understand this to be true. After all, foreigners don't speak Chinese, have little information as to Chinese law and regulations, don't know China and are like small children, clueless and helpless. This makes us easy targets for the bluff.

The second assumption is, the foreign students would act like Chinese and quietly accept this huge increase in tuition because "things are different in China." By using "the government made us do it" we were expected to quietly comply.

What next? Someone at Dong Fang has lost face. I wonder what the reaction will be. As it is clear that not all schools are going to go along with this tuition increase, Dong Fang can either fold or continue the bluff.

I have been a student at Dong Fang for one year but now I am really disappointed in the way the school is run and the lack of respect shown for students and teachers. My guess is that the teachers, had this bluff worked, would have gotten nothing out of the double tuition windfall. I think Marx wrote something about the greedy capitalist exploiting the worker to make huge profits.

Again, I say this was not a smart business move.

What we need to do is to share the names of the schools that have not joined the double tuition action. We should each consider, based on how we feel about getting screwed, changing schools.

Don't trust Dong Fang. The owner thinks they're the mafia or something. They don't keep their promises. If you try to switch to another school they will bully them.