The Dominican

I agree. But I don't think this is the case for the OP, if he is coming back from working in China his salary will be net (taxes paid by the company) he wouldn't be filing under the foreign tax exception but rather under the non-double taxation.
But I think we took a wrong road here, someone explain to me as to why the way he files his taxes is any of a potential employer's business, that is between him and his overbearing uncle.
The question is if coming back from a job in the international market will affect you in any way (well, negatively rather because his résumé will look a LOT more interesting) to get a job back in the US, NO! Why would it? I have expatriate myself a couple of times throughout my career without a problem getting back, in the end of the 80's I was working abroad and started applying with the majors, got the pool without any problems, there are many guys that I know that worked at KAL, EK, AJX that have gotten jobs back in the US (and no, not returning from a furlough) the only job that specifies the 5 years previous living in the US is FedEx, but I don't even think that is an issue here either, the OP has his address in the US, he files his taxes, keeps his drivers license, has his bank account, his family ties, everything is based on his physical address which is in the US. I have several places in different parts of the world, including my apartment in Narita and my homes in the Caribbean, how much time I spend a year in any of my places is irrelevant. Another one of our pilots has two homes in the US (one of them is his physical address) has his apartment in Narita and bought a home in Bangkok, his physical address is his physical address, a lot of people has paid the ultimate price to assure that he doesn't have to report to the politburo, how he distributes his time between his homes.