l would like to know on average how much linguists make, specifically Chinese.Also, so l understand, do linguist get a security clearance usually and then work for different companies who pay them higher for this kind of clearance?How many different kinds of clearance are there?

Chinese is one of the lowest paid fields. Linguists can expect to make approximately $80-110k per year.

Recently there was a position for a chinese translator with top secrete clearance for 45-60k with the air force

in 2006 there was a supervisory training specialist mandarin in the state department for about 75773 - 98500 also req top secret clearance