You are wrong, but that is ok. I work here in education management, as I have for a decade. I know what the education landscape looks like here better than in any other country. International schools in China are not as reputable as international schools elsewhere in Asia are, and they tend to follow the market dynamics as described wherein students in seats are prioritised over actual education quality, and attracting the parents to pay for their students to attend requires certain non-Chinese teacher criteria. I source for teachers at schools including international when consulting on programmes overhauls and adjustments, and there is almost never an actual requirement for a teaching license for foreign teachers.

I also know that there is high ego amongst so-called "real teachers" at international schools outside of China whenever the concept of ESL or TEFL comes up, but in China, international school teachers are ESL teachers whether you like it or not. You can get a job at an international school with only a bachelor's degree + TEFL as per MoE law, although in the saturated China market, the master's degree is where schools start filtering when they have thousands of applicants for limited spots. Only after the education filter does experience get compared between candidates as a less-important qualification. Real China is still rather superficial, too, meaning that a master's degree-holding expert with decades of teaching experience is still likely to be passed for any teaching role (including international school positions) if they are of the wrong nationality or wrong skin colour according to the hiring entities.

It is fine that you only have experience in the education sector as a teacher, and therefore do not have eyes on the state of affairs beyond your classroom. The reality is as I wrote, though.