This chapter offers an autoethnographic, postmodern reflection on the duty of care Western universities owe as they pursue transnational education (TNE) and global expansion. Drawing on the author’s first 28 days in China in early 2022 (when entry was tightly restricted and local lockdowns were among the world’s strictest), the chapter documents the lived experience of being a newly arrived British faculty member navigating pandemic controls and institutional expectations. Using fieldnotes, photographs, and reflective journaling grounded in sociological training, the narrative illuminates how universities underestimated the risk of being abruptly “cut off” from overseas partners and the on-the-ground realities of operating in highly regulated contexts. It interrogates the employment ambiguities created by joint-venture arrangements in which international faculty are locally subcontracted yet expected to embody and deliver the parent university’s values, ideologies, and degrees. The chapter argues that this structural distancing dilutes accountability for staff welfare precisely when support is most needed, revealing a gap between brand promises and protective practices. By situating personal experience within broader questions of governance, ethics, and power, the chapter advances principles to inform leaders’ decision-making and asks a central question: have Western universities fully considered the human, ethical, and operational implications of their global expansion?