The benefit of being in China didn't occur to me, but this is a good point. Even those companies that used to own sub-companies that employed people required an existing visa in order to play ball. I believe the current system is a Z (work) visa that is valid for one month and you need to convert it to an RP. F, L, and X visas haven't been issued since Covid arrived. That having been said, if you have a job offer from McKinsey or similar, they will get you over here.