Questions to Ask Before You Sign a China Contract

The distinction that does the most work

Some terms in a China offer are fixed by law and cannot lawfully be set below a floor; others are left to the employer to decide within that framework. Before you negotiate, the single most useful thing you can do is sort your questions into those two piles, because you ask them differently. A legal floor is something you verify and, if it is breached, something you can point to. An employer's discretion is something you genuinely negotiate.

That sorting is also what protects you from two opposite mistakes: treating a legal minimum as if it were a favour the employer is granting you, and treating a matter of company policy as if it were a law you can invoke.

What the law fixes

The Labour Law of the People's Republic of China, as published by the National People's Congress, sets several floors that matter directly to an offer.

A written contract is required, and it must contain a defined set of clauses. Article 19 states that "A labour contract shall be concluded in written form and contain the following clauses: (1) Term of a labour contract; (2) Work assignment; (3) Labour protection and working conditions; (4) Labour remuneration; (5) Labour discipline; (6) Conditions for the termination of the labour contract; and (7) Liabilities for the violation of the labour contract."

Probation has a ceiling. Article 21 states: "A probation period may be specified in a labour contract. The probation period shall not exceed six months." The shorter, tiered limits that scale with contract length are set out in the later Labour Contract Law; what matters for your questions is that six months is the absolute cap on the law's own terms.

Social insurance is mandatory, not a perk. Article 72 states: "The employing unit and labourers must participate in social insurance and pay social insurance premiums in accordance with the law."

And Article 3 gives the baseline of rights — equal employment, remuneration, rest and holidays, occupational safety and health, training, social insurance and welfare — that the rest of the framework builds on.

The Labour Law is the 1994 statute; the current Labour Contract Law, which governs contract form and probation in more detail, is also published in English by Supreme People's Court. Its Article 17 lists the clauses a contract must contain — and that list includes the work location (工作地点) and social insurance. This matters because location is a common point of dispute and it is not something you have to argue your way into — it belongs in the written contract. Separately, Article 10 requires a written contract within one month of the start of employment, and Article 82 provides that an employer who fails to sign one for more than a month but less than a year owes the worker double wages for that period.

What the employer decides within it

The floors above are not the offer. Everything specific is decided by the employer inside the legal frame:

the salary figure and its structure — base, performance pay, bonus, allowances;
the exact probation length at or below the cap, and the salary during it;
working hours, and how overtime is compensated (time or money);
the work location and whether the role involves travel or transfer;
whether supplementary commercial insurance is offered;
for the housing fund, the specific contribution rate chosen within the range local rules allow;
exit terms — notice periods, and whether any non-compete, service-period, or penalty clause applies.

These are the things you actually negotiate. Read the two lists side by side and the shape of your conversation with the employer becomes clear.

Questions, in order

Ask for the written contract, and read the clauses — not just the salary. Article 19 makes written form mandatory and lists the required clauses. If an employer says the contract will come later or that you can start on a verbal understanding, note that Article 10 requires a written contract within a month of employment — the law already sets the deadline the employer is describing as flexible.
Check that the work location is stated. The Labour Contract Law's Article 17 list of required clauses includes the work location. Confirm the contract names the actual place you will work, not a company's registered address or "head office," and ask whether that location can be changed and under what conditions.
Separate the fixed from the negotiable before you ask. Ask whether a term is a legal requirement or a company choice, and treat the answer as information about the employer. When you ask about social insurance, the law already requires participation, so do not ask whether they will enrol you — ask at what base and at what rate. When you ask about leave, ask how many days and how they accrue.
Social insurance: ask about the base and the rate, in writing. The Labour Law's Article 72 makes participation mandatory. What it does not fix is the contribution base, and a common real-world issue is that the base is set lower than the actual salary. Ask what base the employer will use and confirm the answer in writing. Under the Social Insurance Law, Article 58 requires an employer to apply for social insurance registration for an employee within thirty days of the start of employment — so a further question is when registration begins, and whether it covers probation.
The housing fund is a separate scheme — ask specifically. Unlike social insurance, the housing fund has its own ratio floor. Article 18 of the Housing Fund Management Regulations, as amended by the State Council, provides that both the employee's and the unit's contribution ratios "shall not be lower than 5% of the employee's average monthly wage in the previous year," and not higher than the national maximum, with the specific ratio determined through the local housing fund committee. In practice most cities operate a band (Beijing, for example, has used a 5%–12% range) within which the employer chooses. Ask what rate applies to you, what base it is applied to, and whether contributions begin in your first month. The trade-off is real: a higher rate builds your housing fund account but reduces take-home cash now.
Pin probation down in writing — length, wage, and conditions. Ask how long the probation is, what it pays, and what the written conditions for passing it are. The Labour Contract Law scales the maximum probation to the contract term: up to one month for a contract of at least three months but under one year; up to two months for one to three years; up to six months for a fixed-term contract of three years or more, or an open-ended one; and no probation at all for a contract under three months or one defined by completion of a task. Probation is counted inside the contract term. The employer chooses the length within that cap, not above it. Also note Article 20: probation pay may not be below 80% of the lowest wage for the same post or 80% of the contract wage, and not below the local minimum wage.
Ask about hours and overtime. The law provides for rest and holidays but does not tell you whether the role expects forty hours or sixty. Ask what the standard hours are, what the overtime policy is, and whether overtime is compensated with time or money. If the answer is vague, ask for the policy in the contract.
Ask about your right to work, and who handles the paperwork. For international candidates this is the question most often left too late. Ask who sponsors and files the work permit, what documents they need from you, what the timeline is, and what happens if the permit is delayed or denied. Then confirm the visa requirements with your own embassy or consulate rather than relying on the employer's account.
Ask what happens at the end. Ask about notice periods on both sides, severance, and whether any post-employment restrictions apply. If the employer mentions a non-compete or confidentiality clause, ask to see it before you sign. The Labour Contract Law caps non-compete periods for covered senior, technical and confidential staff at two years and requires monthly compensation during it — so get the terms in writing.

A worked example: the housing fund trade-off

Suppose Offer A states a base salary of 20,000 RMB a month and a housing fund ratio of 5%, and Offer B states 19,000 RMB and 12%. Both figures are lawful if the local band permits them. On take-home cash A looks better by roughly 1,000 a month before tax. But B contributes 12% of the base to a fund you can use for rent or, later, to buy, against A's 5%. Whether B is better for you depends on whether you need cash now or can leave value in the account — the point is that this is an employer-discretion row that the headline salary hides, and you can only compare it if you ask for the rate and the base.

What this method cannot prove

This checklist tells you what to ask and where the legal floors sit. It does not tell you what your employer will actually do after you sign. A contract can be well written and still poorly honoured; a verbal promise about a housing fund rate can quietly change. The Labour Law and the Social Insurance Law describe national frameworks, and the Housing Fund Management Regulations set national floors — none of them describes your employer's practice, and none can tell you whether your specific company uses the full base or the minimum.

You also cannot verify everything from outside China. You may be unable to check whether a company has a history of labour disputes, or whether it contributes consistently. If you have contacts in China or a professional adviser, use them. If you do not, ask the employer whether you can speak to a current foreign employee — and note whether they refuse.

The takeaway

Do not sign until you have the written contract in front of you and you have asked, in writing, about the base and rate for social insurance and the housing fund, the probation length and pay, the hours and overtime policy, the work location, and who handles your work permit. The law sets the floor: a written contract with the required clauses including the work location, mandatory social insurance, a probation cap, and limitations on non-compete. Everything within that frame is the employer's to decide — and therefore yours to ask about. Those points are far easier to negotiate before you sign than after.