They will probably look at you as a bad teacher, rather than having bad students.

You may not get fired but you won’t be helping yourself.

The school will probably just change your scores so they pass. That's what's happened in my experience, anyway. *technically* I've never failed a student lol.

Must look at it from the Chinese way of thinking, it will be a big loss of "face".  IF YOU MUST FAIL 2/3 of your class, you will see it as students are not doing their job (of learning) properly.  The school, and their parents, will see it as you are not doing your job as a teacher properly.

If I were you, I will use the "curve" to grade the class.  To those 10 that are learning, give them A's  and B's.  To the next 15, C's and D's, and the last 3 to 5 or so get an F.

Just be honest. Talk to other teachers and tell them your story. Besides, you will do students more goods than harm if you are honest with their grades. If 10 students are really good, you should reward them.

Usually, I only fail a student if they do not come to class. The actual set amount depends on how many times we meet a week, but for instance, if we meet once a week, and the semester is 16 weeks, if a student misses 4 times with an unexcused absence, they fail. I've talked with my FAO, and she does the same thing in her classes, so this is an accepted practice at our college.

We are allowed to give the following grades: Excellent, Good, So-so, and Fail. Most of the students fall into the "So-so" catagory, but many are "good." A few are "Excellent," and I usually have 3 or 4 students "Fail" out of the roughly 260 students that I teach. This was the first year where I failed 9 students (out of 1 class of 50). Again, the reason was that they didn't show up. Some of them missed 7 weeks! Every semester I go over the rules, and #2 is that attendence is required to pass my class.

But kchur is correct. I've heard of this happening in a lot of schools, that if you fail a student, the school will just change the final grade. I know of some teachers that it has happen to where I teach. Which ultimately makes a person wonder, "What's the point?"

I am in a unique situation,  I think.  I do not pass nor fail students. I do not administer nor do I make the exams for the classes that I teach.  At the end of every year, the school leaders ask me what chapters and what units of the book I have covered. Together with my assistant, we prepare a short list with the major points of what covered.  I do an in-class review of 2 - 3 weeks prior to the end of each term.  The school then administers the test and grades the students -- I must say that in my several years here, the grading has been honest, and when the student do well, I am praised, and when they do not so well, I am not praised but admonished.  I find the system relatively fair but takes some manoeuvering.

yes you could lose your job even if you fail one student, it doedn't matter that your students are a bunch of half witted brain dead morons that spend the whole class flinging bird at pigs with a sling shot, your abilities as a teach are being judged by how many students pass your course.
Being a manager for a very famous English training center for 2 years in Shenzhen I was told by the owner that every student must pass, so i taught my teachers how to mark on grade curve. I had good teacher and didn't want any of them fired because little Hop Sing could pay attention in class or spent all his time talking to his girlfriend in Chinese.
No matter how good your class room management skills are some of the kids you have to teach are simply useless morons who just do not want to learn English.

If you fail a student who a) doesn't try or b) is terrible, then that's fine and my school encourages it. They really encourage it. Like, they tell me about how many people I should fail every week. If the student has to retake the class then that's another 400-600rmb the school gets. Ruthless profiteering ftw!

I guess you are the real teacher  here! strict and meticulous!, well "TIC" this is china, they don't respect anything here.. so don't bother yourself, just lower the standard of the tests, to make all the student pass, put difficult questions as well as easy ones, my mom is a language professor she taught for years in high school, but you cannot compare western education with chinese education, the moral values to a true education is just crap here!!

In my experience most schools rely on student feedback, If the students like you , you will keep your job, if they dislike you will lose it...problem is, if you fail someone they wouldnt like you and  will complain and school will make you retest them. Best bet is to give them 61.

Failing a student is a definite money maker for the schools.
The little dumb asses who play with  themselves and text their gf's/bf's
during class get a wake up call when they have to pony up several hundred rmb to retest.
Are they any better at English then? Probably not, but they are  lighter in the pocket.

I am in the fortunate situation (because I chose to be!) to be working in a university that works in co-operation with a foreign university, and thus the students require an IELTS equivalent grade at the end of the year. Making this more tasty is the fact that I will be a certified IELTS examiner shortly - and the only one in our college!

All of which means, if my little shits fail my exams, then it means they actually can't continue on (and need to re-take the year!) This is definitely the case, as I'm in touch with the OS university's program director, and I'm sure he has my back (and, if he didn't, there's always my government, who has a vested interest in the standards of education here )

OTOH, the local guy in charge of teaching is trying to pull a swifty with one of the other teachers... like most places in China, 60% is the pass mark. He's just recently found out that in my home country, 50% can get you a pass (and, in some cases, even 40% - with conditions!) So, he's now trying to convince a teacher that all those students who failed with 50-59% have now actually passed!!!

My suggestion, if you really care, is (if you're not already) get well qualified and well experienced, and then you can work for places where that sort of BS doesn't happen... or if they try, you chuck a hissy-fit, and storm out :)   Do NOT fall into the trap of "This is China"....Get selfish! How would you feel about those people who meet your students in the future, get disgusted with their level of English, and then assign blame to YOU as the person who passed them? ie, take a lot of pride in what you do! I fail students who deserve to fail... and I give good grades to those who deserve to get good grades! Make your STUDENTS proud of their achievements! (or ashamed of wasting their parents money... )