Ok so I need some advice.

I started a PhD in Hong Kong after some time as an RA here and it hasn't been great. About 3 months in my supervisor resigned and I am now working as the sole member of a "group" at the uni, and she is supervising me (ish) from a company she works in now. I should mention this is a biotech PhD so its like I need to be in the lab I can't just sit and read or whatever. I have also found out that this lab has *never published their own research* in the 4 years it ran and graduated 3 PhDs, none of whom have published in that time. None of them did postdoc.

So I'm in a lab which has become a side project and never published even when it was a real lab. On top of that I have ended up getting married and my wife wants to return to the UK for her own postgrad studies. I feel this is a waste oftime no matter how hard I try as they can't publish anyway, so I am planning to leave and look for jobs and another PhD in a real uni with real scientists who do actual new research supervising me.

My big fear is explaining why I left my PhD here to other supervisors. I think I will be able to get an ok reference from my "cheif supervisor" who is actually just some professor who knows nothing of my research (as my resigned supervisor is still actually supervising me), but I fear the appearence of being a "quitter" in interveiws. How would you spin this when going to other labs?

I have worked in research groups in placements, honours projects and I know what it feels like. This is not that - a PhD from this uni with no papers is an academic pair of lead boots and that is what 100% of the students here have got - and they aren't dumb either.

Edit: I'm about 9 months in

I think if you are planning to go to a uni in Europe, US or Australia etc, you can probably explain about the lack of research output in HK unis and they will understand your reasons for wanting to quit and move to a different uni...