Do you need an employee in China, or a freelancer?
We were told we need an employer of record to hire anyone in China. Do we?
Not for every hire. China treats a working relationship as employment when the person is under your rules and management, does paid work you arrange, and that work is part of your business. Answer the nine questions below. The tool tells you whether it reads as project work, as mixed, or as a job that needs an employee.
The nine questions, and how each answer is read
- What are you paying for? A defined result, such as a design, a report, a feature or an inspection, reads as project work. A number of hours or days a week adds 1 point toward a job. A person to fill a role in your team adds 2.
- Who decides when and where the work is done? If they decide, or you agree deadlines only, that is no management. If you set their hours or place of work, that is strong management under test (2).
- Will they follow your internal rules: a staff handbook, approvals, reporting to a manager? Yes is strong management under test (2).
- Will they have a job title, a company email, a work ID card, attendance records or a place in your organization chart? Most of these is strong management. One or two is some management.
- Is the work part of what your business does every day, done alongside your own staff? Yes meets test (3).
- Does the work end? Open-ended adds 1 point. Ending when the deliverables are accepted, or renewing project by project, adds none.
- Are they free to work for other clients? No adds 1 point.
- How will you pay? A fixed monthly amount, whatever is delivered, adds 1 point. Paying per milestone or deliverable adds none.
- Are you asking them to register a business, such as an individual business (个体工商户), only so the arrangement looks like contracting? Yes adds a note on the 2026 draft rule. It never changes the result.
How the answers add up
- This reads as a job when management is strong and the work is part of your business, or when management is strong and the points reach 3.
- This reads as project work when there is no management, the work is not part of your business, and the points are 1 or fewer.
- Mixed: some answers point to employment in every other case.
This tool applies published tests to your answers. It is not legal advice.
The tests this tool applies
China’s labor ministry, as it was then called, set out in 2005 when a labor relationship exists even though nobody signed a written labor contract. All three conditions must hold at once. When a foreign company hires one person, it’s usually the second and third that settle it.
用人单位招用劳动者未订立书面劳动合同，但同时具备下列情形的，劳动关系成立。(一)用人单位和劳动者符合法律、法规规定的主体资格；(二)用人单位依法制定的各项劳动规章制度适用于劳动者，劳动者受用人单位的劳动管理，从事用人单位安排的有报酬的劳动；(三)劳动者提供的劳动是用人单位业务的组成部分。
Where an employer engages a worker without a written labor contract, a labor relationship is established when all of the following hold: (1) the employer and the worker have the legal standing required by laws and regulations; (2) the employer’s lawfully made labor rules apply to the worker, and the worker is subject to the employer’s labor management and does paid work the employer arranges; (3) the work the worker provides is part of the employer’s business. (Our translation.)
The tool takes test (1) as given, since both of you can sign a contract. Questions 2, 3 and 4 feed test (2). Question 5 is test (3). The rest is context. On its own, context can move a result from project work to mixed; with strong management, it can make it a job.
Article 2 of the same notice lists the evidence. It starts with wage payment records and social insurance records. Then come a work ID or service card, the recruitment forms a worker filled in, and attendance records. Testimony from other workers comes last. Most of it is paperwork a company produces without meaning to. That is why the tool asks about a work ID, attendance and a fixed monthly wage.
In 2021, the human resources ministry and seven other national bodies drew the other side of the line, in guidance written for platform work (人社部发〔2021〕56号). Its scope is platform work, but it shows where the line between a job and freelancing runs. It names three cases. Where the tests are met, the company signs a labor contract. Where they aren’t fully met but the company still manages the worker, the two sign a written agreement on rights and duties. And where a person uses a platform to run their own business or work as a freelancer, civil law governs. That middle case is close to what the tool calls mixed.
A newer rule is still a draft. On October 8, 2026, the human resources ministry published draft measures on the rights of workers in new forms of employment (征求意见稿), open for comment until November 8, 2026. As Xinhua reported it, the draft leaves out people who run their own business or freelance through a platform. It also bars platform companies from avoiding employer duties by inducing workers to register as individual businesses (个体工商户). When this page was checked on October 18, 2026, no final text had been published.
How each answer counts
That’s the law. This is how the tool turns your answers into a result.
| Question | What it informs | The answer that points to employment |
|---|---|---|
| What are you paying for? | Context; a role in your team also points to test (3) | Hours or days a week (1 point); a role in your team (2 points) |
| Who decides when and where the work is done? | Test (2), management | You set their hours or place of work |
| Will they follow your internal rules? | Test (2), your rules | Yes |
| Will they have a title, a company email, a work ID, attendance records or a place in your org chart? | Test (2) and the evidence in article 2 | Most of these is strong; one or two counts as some |
| Is the work part of your everyday business? | Test (3) | Yes |
| Does the work end? | Context | It is open-ended (1 point) |
| Are they free to work for other clients? | Context | No (1 point) |
| How will you pay? | Context and the wage-record evidence | A fixed monthly amount (1 point) |
| Are you asking them to register a business only for appearances? | The 2026 draft | Yes adds a note; it never changes the result |
Keeping project work project work
Whether a freelance arrangement stays project work depends mostly on how you run it day to day:
- The contract names deliverables, not hours.
- Each payment is tied to a milestone you accept.
- Nobody clocks in, and your staff handbook and approval chain don’t apply.
- They stay free to work for others, and the contract says so.
- They get no title and no box in your org chart, because they supply work rather than join the team.
The freelance services agreement checklist turns these into clauses. If what you need is a few hours of Chinese-speaking help each week, hiring a Chinese-speaking assistant based in China shows how to scope it as a task list.
When the answer is an employee
Some work is simply a job, and a job needs an employer in China: your own entity, or an employer of record that employs the person for you. A freelance contract doesn’t change what the work is. Contractor or employee in China has the tests in full, with what they mean for you.
If it reads as project work
For everything else about hiring one person in China, start with how to hire a freelancer in China without speaking Chinese, and see how ChinaTalentDesk works. Then write the project as deliverables and milestones. Start a brief.
Questions buyers ask
Do I need an employer of record to hire someone in China?
Only if the work is a job. An employer of record employs a person in China on your behalf, so it is one way to have an employee there; your own entity is the other. A defined project, with deliverables and milestones and no staff rules, done by someone who runs their own working time, may not need either. The tool on this page tests your own arrangement against the published tests.
Can a foreign company hire a contractor in China without an entity?
It can contract a freelancer for project work without one, as long as the arrangement does not meet China’s tests for employment: your rules and management, paid work you arrange, and work that is part of your business. Paying a freelancer in China has its own rules, which the handbook on hiring in China covers.
What makes a contractor an employee in China?
Under a 2005 notice of the labor ministry, a labor relationship exists without a written contract when three tests all hold: both sides have legal standing, the worker is under the employer’s rules and labor management and does paid work it arranges, and the work is part of the employer’s business. Wage records, a work ID, recruitment forms, attendance records and testimony count as evidence.
Is this tool legal advice?
No. It applies the published tests to your answers and tells you which way they lean. For a decision on a real hire, especially one that reads as mixed or as a job, ask a lawyer qualified in China.
Sources
- Notice on Matters Concerning the Establishment of Labor Relations, 劳社部发〔2005〕12号 (official copy, Xuchang Human Resources and Social Security Bureau), checked October 18, 2026
- Guiding Opinions on Protecting the Labor Rights of Workers in New Forms of Employment, 人社部发〔2021〕56号 (gov.cn), checked October 18, 2026
- Xinhua, draft measures on the rights of workers in new forms of employment, October 8, 2026, checked October 18, 2026