Yes I agree. This is a Rumor network after all. Nothing legal. BUT.
The burden of proof is on the pilot to prove what he is, to prove his background, his experience, and his qualifications. All pilot jobs require this, some more than others. China is definitely in the way more than others category.
18 months ago, when they got to the stage of applying for our airport ID's here, we went through about two weeks of phone calls from the company, because the CAAC was calling them. We had to clarify and back up things on our college transcripts even. URGE's Doctorate in Physics from MIT, and Rhodes Scholar Certificates might not hold up. They are going to call MIT.
As for our flying backgrounds, they demanded original documents from the airlines, No criminal record letters, embassy authenticated, from my home country and the last one that I worked. I had to have an original latter from Vietnamese CAAV saying that I had no accidents. This is in addition to the normal FAA Verification of Certificate Privledges, and No Accident letter from the FAA. The office that issues these is called, personally, by someone at the CAAC.
400 hours on a Korean license, and a Transport Canada license, with no Canadian flying experience, will not cut it here, as that will not satisfy their requirements. The FAA has a file for all license holders, all the way back to when we got our first license. For me that was 1980 with a private license continuing all the way to 3 years ago when I left the US. It is on the copy of my file, that I have in my possession.
There are more Americans working here than any other nationality by far. This might be the only place in the contract world like that. Lots of Canadians as well. The CAAC has a great deal of experience doing background checks on us. They know what we "look like" on paper.
I have seen several pilots not pass the airport ID phase, and we are a very small airline.