What I still can't get my head around is the fact that SOC has more power than FLT OPS. For the non-initiated, this means that the scheduling dept will always overrule FLT OPS. A very strange situation.
For us westerners it is a very strange situation indeed but it is not only CSA or China...., here in Japan they tend to run the operation outside of the company organigram, up to the point that the pilots don't have any interaction at all with whom are supposed to be our direct supervisors.
Recently I had to send a communication to the company and I wanted to include the CP and the DO..., since they change every couple of years I had to ask one of the girls in the office who was at those positions these days.....
Flight ops seem happy to let the office minions run the show.