Quoting Lowkoon :
" PS, feel free to apply, or do you feel the package isnt good enough to compensate you for dragging you away from your country of birth and your friends and family and dumping you in one of the most polluted environments on earth?"
Ever heard of the term "hardship post" ... well that was what xpat flying was in Asia and Mideast in the past. Those were the days when you couldn't buy bread or milk in Hong Kong (yes dairy is not part of a chinese diet - neither is baking ) As for the flying - it was harder too due to these parts of the world being less developed at the time.
That's why Cathay and most others paid massive salaries.
Now those days are over and management don't consider you having to leave your home coutry and moving to one of the most polluted environments away from everything you hold dear as a " hardship". The opposite actually - you should be gratefull they even offer you some work - its only due to the fact that they don't have enough local cadets to fill the slots yet.
As a parallel: Dubai is the same now. When they needed expats to develop the place the reward was there - these days foreigners catually WANT to go there so the Emirati attitude is essentialy that if you really want to come to their great country its going to cost you....