Should be a reasonable gig when the wrinkles are ironed out. This is the first time expats have gone through this neck of the woods, I believe, and there are new issues arrising weekly.
Right you are Crossbleed. Although this would not be the first time expats are coming through these neck of the woods. There are many foreigners flying for Shenzhen Airlines in southern China. Although they seem to have their issues ironed out by the CAAC's Southern District Office.
There are also a bunch of foreign pilots with Okay Airways, based in Tianjin, who are the first expats trying to break into the Chinese aviation market. These pilots have been waiting for over 1.5 years now, waiting for CAAC (Northern District Office) to iron out their policies on hiring foreign pilots. Although I do believe that this would be Air China's first official attempt to hire foreign pilots. CAAC is notoriously known to being extremely slow in processing new policies and regulations.