To answer your last question first, well, I'm a little surprised that you haven't heard of two year degrees. In America, we call it an Associate Degree (AA), and it's offered by community colleges or vocational colleges for a variety of fields and disciplines. For example, many hospital employees, or those in the medical profession have AA degrees. Perhaps you'd call it a diploma rather than a degree, but that's just mincing words. The person I mentioned in a previous post to which you are referring has an IT degree from a college in England, which, as I understand, can actually be earned in as little as a year. Anyway, I'm sure England and America aren't the only countries that offer such a degree.

As to my definition of a qualified teacher in China, I would think it self explanatory. Nevertheless, if you really want specifics:
Experience and/or training in Education or ESL/EFL.
Demonstrated or demonstrable skills. (Obviously not taken into consideration very often in China.)
The ability to string together more than a few sentences in speaking or writing without stumbling. (You know as well as I that it's quite difficult to find posts in these forums that demonstrate such an ability.)

Beyond that, my own personal criteria are a little more stringent. If you couldn't submit a CV without glaring errors, I wouldn't hire you. If you couldn't demonstrate that you're a student of the language yourself, I wouldn't hire you. If you don't know the difference between ESL and EFL, I wouldn't hire you. If you only wanted a job so that you could have a visa that keeps you in China and have no actual interest in teaching, I wouldn't hire you. If you couldn't pass a simple grammar test, I wouldn't hire you. If you couldn't get a job teaching ESL in your own country, I definitely wouldn't hire you to teach EFL in this country.

It's also my opinion that the majority of college students in China would be better served by well qualified Chinese teachers of English. Don't think for a moment that this idea isn't gaining momentum. Sure, a white face carries a lot of weight. It sells the program. That's disgusting, and believe me, as more and more FTs create problems in China and as more and more students complain about inappropriate behavior from said FTs, change will be demanded.* Yes, yes, I can already hear the cries of indignation out there amid the accusations of myself and others being self aggrandizing, but I really don't care. I'm too old to give a damn, and believe it or not it's the students I care about, not the growing swells of UNQUALIFIED FTs. Yeah, boohoo, cry me a river if you can't get a job at home. Why should Chinese students spend the hard earned pay of their parents on less than quality education just so every unemployed bozo from abroad can make a living. Stay home. Plant a garden. Get off your ass and ride a bike. Turn off your electricity once in a while. Help your own country. Get involved in something that allows you to use the skills you do have and forget about stepping into a classroom just because you're a white faced clown who doesn't know the difference between a coma and a comma. Why be a rat that leaves a sinking ship? Get involved with community activism. Wouldn't making a difference at home make a lot more sense than not making a difference abroad?

*Here's a quote from a paper recently written by a Chinese college student with whom I am acquainted.
"My comments: this teacher taught me for a whole year. He talks in a serious way but acts in a totally opposite way. He often showed us girls' pictures in class and said "these are all my Chinese girlfriends" and so on. I can't see any serious motivation from him, not at all. This case should have been resolved at the level of recruitment. We don't need to hire troublemakers."

Well, Turino, I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that you believe anyone can be an English teacher in China. Actually, I agree with that. Anyone can be a teacher in China. Should they be? That's the real question.