Thanks. I knew it, there really isn't much basing in the US, other than Cathay Pacific also. The day they start offering that and then they'll have more US pilots applying.

You raised good points about the stringent medical exams which eliminate about 30% of all applicants, but the CAC is feeling pressure to be more realistic and focus on vision and heart issues. There was a semi-secret conference in Tianjin last week about exactly this problem and all the HR directors from 22 Chinese airlines asked for "realistic standards conducive to hiring".

Some veteran expat pilots here feel there may be CAC old-schoolers who simply want to see more Chinese pilots in the left seat regardless of their English proficiency and use the medical fails as a tool to further that agenda, which of course is counter-productive and threatens air safety - if true.

The chinese pilots still have to pass the same medical and I have met several captains there that have failed and are trying again. the only difference is that they still have a job whereas expats are shown the door. When they start to use common sense on the medicals more people will pass. Too often pilots fail something based on data that in no way can be true. Liver enzymes 50 times over limit and they think that the test must be right and the person is walking dead. I have had to do my blood test 3 times in three days because either they lost it or something was wrong. total lack of talent in their CAAC medical examinations with the majority of the test being given by students not real doctors. I hope that they relax the standards or at least use common sense. Maybe let pilots use their counties medicals?

The CAAC medical will not change. It is their "system". It is how everything is done in China. We call it organized crime.

That is all they have known for thousands of years. They think it is normal.

They cut expats much more slack than they do themselves. We had 39 out of 150 Chinese captains at my airline med down at one time. The average age was probably 32.

It is what it is.