I've heard that Korea requires a criminal background check and drug test for foreign teachers, does China have a similar policy?
If you apply for a work visa in China you need to do a blood test, they mostly check for STD In same places (especially the inland) you can probably get a visa without going through the official procedure cause the school that hires you will have connections in the local police station, but these places will not pay so much , probably 2000-3000 RMB per month , thats about 400 US$. But if you live outside of Shanghai, Beijing , Guangzhou you will probably have little to spend on anyway...
You need a medical check to get your residency permit in China, which includes a blood test, but I don't think they check your blood for drugs (I've done it twice, and while I hadn't done anything the day before, they probably would have found something or other if they were really looking for it). Alternatively you can get the medical test done in your home country (expensive and tricky!) and then you don't need to ask the doc to check for drugs - they mostly just want to make sure you don't have any infectious diseases (STD or otherwise) so they can hand you this little book which states that you are "not a threat to Chinese public health"
This is not exactly related to teaching English. But I'm a lawyer in India and i'm looking for an opportunity to do an internship with a law firm in china.. Shanghai, if possible. can anyone help me out with the same?
What program is it? I'm going to China this summer for 2 weeks to teach english, and I'm pretty sure I won't have any drug tests. I'm assuming you're taking a longer term program though. I'm going to teach some summer camp for kids 10-18, sounds pretty interesting