With the deepening of the Belt and Road Initiative and the entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, Yunnan has become a key platform for China–ASEAN cooperation in education and human resources. "Chinese language + vocational skills" programmes—combining Chinese-language teaching with sector-specific training—now constitute an important form of China's outward-oriented education service trade toward South and Southeast Asia. Yet these programmes are built on complex cross-border labour arrangements involving seconded Chinese teachers, locally hired staff and student interns, who are simultaneously subject to Chinese labour law, the labour law of host states such as Myanmar, Lao PDR and Vietnam, and in some cases international norms. Overlapping jurisdiction, conflicts of law and uneven enforcement generate significant legal and compliance risks. This article clarifies the core employment models underpinning "Chinese + vocational" projects, analyses the principles governing jurisdiction and applicable law in cross-border labour disputes, and maps major risks across three scenarios and four dimensions. On this basis, it develops an integrated, ex ante compliance framework that links pre-entry legal due diligence and structural design with full-cycle contractual and institutional governance and mechanisms for dynamic compliance and dispute resolution, thereby providing a structured analytical lens and practical toolkit for managing labour law risks in Yunnan's outward-oriented education service trade.
Guangfu et al. (Wed,) studied this question.