I was reading this thread and just had to reply. I worked for CAL on 340 fleet. I had some interesting moments babysitting some very junior Captains and some senior ones as well. Of course there were some good local pilots there as well. The real problem is..as always, the ingrained cultural attitudes there. I had more than once tried to explain with some subtlety that culture doesn't play a roll in the cockpit.
I got fed up with many aspects of the job, including my safety and just uped and left and I would do it again. I was never asked to pay any bond money back, probably because they realised they were the shafters not the shaftees.
If it was a company with even the mildest of moral obligations to the expats, I would have perhaps told them I was leaving but how do you approach a smiling assassin..I wasnt about to lose a sh*t load of money to prove i'm a good guy. All it would have proved is i'm another sucker done over by an airline. I, like many others were led to believe we had a career with CAL but having been one of the early batch of round eyes to go there, we came ,we saw, we left... and the endorsement is not worth a pinch of crud as is the Taiwan license.
Sure, if your a newby wanting an endorsement and get up some experience, just go and do it if you get the opportunity but one word of warning... I wouldn't sign over a bank guarantee no way no how... AIN't worth it... Good luck.