Maybe I spoke too soon on the optimism front, I'm back to being a realist.
It's clear that the goalposts are continually moving. Let's assume that I think that working in China for a year could be beneficial to my career, and also that waiting another year until mid-2022 (or later!) is infeasible.

Let's see...

• My existing vaccine (Moderna) is useless
• I can't get a Chinese vaccine in most Western countries, nor do I really want to. Plus someone in another country definitely needs it much more than I do
• I need to get a job with a company that will give a PU letter* (the RP strategy mentioned above in the thread isn't that useful if I only want to do this for a year)
• I need to wait an indefinite time for paperwork to be processed
• I need to get a green health code
• I need to book a flight (cost probably covered by company)
• I need to quarantine for two weeks (cost probably covered by company, but ughhh)
• Once I get in, I effectively can't leave for a year without going through the health code/flight/quarantine hullabaloo, and unsure if company will pay for the return flight
• I probably have at least one engagement in spring 2022 that I would really want to go to

* Arguably this step may not be that hard. I'm not looking for an English teaching job, and I assume the number of overseas applicants for professional jobs in China right now is extremely low.

I don't really see the situation changing in the short term so given the time span of interviewing/paperwork/healthcode etc I might as well make this decision sooner rather than later...