“I don’t think there was a lot of tangibles that people could really base decisions on. So they’re just moving on now,” Eric Olander, editor-in-chief of The China-Global South Project, told the Sinica Podcast last month. The Atlantic Council’s verdict was blunter: “It was a big show — with little to show for it.”

When Trump threatened a separate 10%-12.5% tariff on dozens of countries, including Chinese imports, over forced labour practices last week, it seemed to confirm the cynics. Yet one item from the summit has actually moved forward. And it may be consequential for Chinese suppliers.

US-China Board of Trade

On June 5, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative published a notice in the Federal Register opening a public comment period on the newly established U.S.-China Board of Trade. Comments are due July 10, with rebuttals accepted until July 27.

The mechanism, agreed by Trump and Xi as part of the Beijing summit package, was described by the White House as the “cornerstone” of the bilateral economic agreement. The idea is simple. Under it, both sides will identify $30-$50 billion worth of the other’s goods that both governments will agree not to tariff.

Total U.S.-China goods trade came to $414.7 billion in 2025, according to the U.S. Trade Representative’s office. So each side’s basket of $30 billion represents roughly 7% of the total relationship — or about 14-15% combined. It is, by any measure, a narrow corridor. Though observers estimate this would just be a start.

“The non-sensitive basket is just such a small part now of our overall trade with China. So maybe this Board of Trade, maybe it starts with that and expands in the future,” said Wendy Cutler, a former USTR negotiator who heads the Asia Society Policy Center in Washington, as quoted by Reuters.

So What Goes in the Basket?

Yet, no matter how small, the significance of that corridor depends entirely on what goes in it. For instance, $30 billion in soybeans is not the same as $30 billion in semiconductors.

“We think the Chinese side will focus those reductions on U.S. agricultural products,” said Even Rogers Pay, a director at Trivium China, told Reuters. “The $17 billion purchase agreement and 25 million metric tons soybean deal, together, would roughly total out to just over $30 billion.”

That would mean the Board of Trade, at least from Beijing’s side, is essentially an agricultural trade mechanism. And a political win for Trump’s farm state base.

On the American side, testifying before the Senate Finance Committee on June 3, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered an indication of what the Washington’s non-sensitive basket might contain.

“What are $30 billion of things in non-critical industries, non-critical things — fireworks, Halloween costumes, very low-end consumer items that we do not want to reshore, that we want to buy from them,” he said. “And what are things that they would like to buy from us — the seafood, maybe energy — and then we will both agree that that basket on either side will have no tariffs.”

Bessent has repeatedly mentioned energy as a likely component of what China might buy from the U.S., though plastic skeletons for liquefied natural gas seems unlikely to be the deal Beijing had in mind.

Bessent’s examples may have been chosen for their political optics, but the category of low-end consumer items he is describing is considerably broader. Section 301 List 4A — the USTR’s existing tariff schedule covering consumer goods and apparel at 7.5% — is the natural hunting ground for a non-sensitive designation. Products on that list include smart speakers, Bluetooth headphones, bed linens, multifunction printers and footwear: goods for which a national security argument is difficult to sustain.

An Awkward Win for ‘America First’

The economic consequences of all this would be relatively modest. But imagine the U.S. carves out consumer goods and China reciprocates with agricultural products. What would that actually mean in practice?

Coface, the French credit insurer, noted in November 2025 that tariff reductions could nudge Chinese exports of textiles, toys and low-margin goods back toward the U.S. market.

For China’s small export manufacturers — who bore the sharpest edge of the tariff war — a tariff carve-out for low-end consumer goods would be welcome news. For businesses sourcing from China but selling outside the U.S., the indirect effect may be that a stabilized U.S. export lane reduces the pressure on Chinese suppliers to discount aggressively into other markets.

But there is an awkward political optic here. As recently as October 2025, White House spokesperson Kush Desai was telling reporters — ironically in response to questions about the rising cost of Halloween costumes — that cheap Chinese imports were the antithesis of the Trump economic vision: “Real prosperity is good jobs, booming industry, and thriving communities for everyday Americans — not cheap Chinese imports.”

So, the biggest winner from the Board of Trade may be that very import-driven retail model that fueled so much of MAGA’s political energy in the first place. Trump, however, is no policy purist. A functioning Board of Trade, with a product list attached, would give him something concrete to show when Xi arrives in Washington for a state visit on Sept. 24. A deal is a deal.

The post Has Anything Actually Come of the US-China Summit? appeared first on Kinyu.

This guide walks you through what a GM actually costs in China, whether your business is at the stage where that cost makes sense, and what to do if it doesn’t.

How Much Is a General Manager Paid in China?

Compensation at the general manager level varies considerably depending on the size and complexity of the business, the sector, and the location. According to SalaryExpert, the average general manager salary in China sits at approximately 1.85 million yuan per year. That figure, however, is skewed upward by large multinationals and complex operations.

A more realistic range for a mid-market business hiring a local GM for a sourcing or manufacturing operation is between 300,000 yuan and 500,000 yuan annually. For locally hired managers at medium-complexity operations in second- and third-tier cities, packages at the lower end of that range are common.

Where you’re hiring also matters. Shanghai and Beijing command a 10-20% premium over equivalent roles in tier-2 cities like Chengdu or Qingdao. A GM in Shenzhen costs more than one doing the same job in Changsha. Kinyu’s Salary Calculator can help you work out the full employment cost for a specific location, including the statutory contributions that sit on top of any headline salary figure.

Expat Salary Expectations

If you’re thinking about bringing in someone from overseas, the cost conversation changes significantly. Expat packages at GM level typically include executive housing, international school fees for dependants, tax equalisation provisions and annual flights home.

That said, the era of the full legacy expat package — housing, club membership, school fees, the lot — is largely over. Most businesses now offer a higher base with fewer non-cash add-ons, which brings the structure closer to a competitive local hire.

And local hires have genuinely caught up. The pool of bilingual Chinese managers with international business experience and deep local networks has grown substantially over the past decade. For many foreign businesses, a strong local hire now delivers comparable capability to an expat, at meaningfully lower total cost, and with far less administrative overhead.

Future Salary Expectations

GM salaries in China are on the way up. ERI projects around 18 percent growth over the next five years at this level. The steepest rises will be in sectors dealing with supply chain reconfiguration, advanced manufacturing, and technology — where the competition for capable senior managers is already intense.

Currency note: The RMB–USD exchange rate held in a 7.20-7.30 yuan band through most of 2025–2026. Significant moves in either direction could shift the dollar cost of a Chinese hire by 5-8%. Businesses budgeting in sterling or euros face additional exposure on top of that.

Businesses competing for capable general managers are increasingly expected to offer equity participation, profit-sharing, or performance bonuses tied to commercial outcomes. Candidates at this level treat fixed pay as a floor, not a ceiling, and packages that do not include a meaningful variable component will struggle to attract the stronger end of the market.

Should You Hire a General Manager in China?

The answer looks very different depending on where your business is.

Alternatives to Hiring a General Manager

A managed sourcing office gives you a local presence in China, with people on the ground handling vendor management, logistics, and quality control as part of a structured service arrangement. You get the capability without the recruitment process, the employment contract, or a senior salary sitting permanently on your cost base. Take a look at Kinyu’s sourcing office model if that fits where you are.

Alternatively, ongoing supply chain management and advisory services provide strategic oversight, supplier monitoring, and project management on a flexible basis — covering the functions a GM would typically own, but scaled to what you actually need. If your requirement is periodic senior input rather than a permanent executive, this structure will almost always deliver better value.

How Kinyu Can Help

Kinyu works with overseas businesses across the Chinese mainland, providing sourcing, supply chain management and employment solutions that do the job of a general manager — without the full-time cost.

Whether you’re not yet at the scale where an in-house hire makes sense, or you’re ready to hire directly and need the employment infrastructure to do it compliantly, get in touch and we’ll talk through what makes sense for where you are.

The post General Manager Salaries in China appeared first on Kinyu.

For employers, Dongguan offers deep, advanced manufacturing capability inside the Greater Bay Area, at costs below neighbouring Shenzhen, with the talent and supplier ecosystem to match. Here’s what you need to know before hiring.

Quick Facts 

Who Should Consider Hiring in Dongguan?

Dongguan is best suited to companies in electronics and smart device manufacturing, advanced and precision equipment, robotics and automation, and traditional consumer goods sectors such as furniture, toys, textiles and footwear. It also appeals to firms seeking an R&D or engineering presence connected to Shenzhen’s innovation ecosystem without the city’s higher cost base.

Talent Profile

Dongguan’s workforce is built for manufacturing. The city’s permanent population of over 10 million is overwhelmingly made up of migrant workers, giving employers access to a large and flexible labour pool for production roles. At the higher end, Dongguan has worked hard to attract engineering and technical talent, particularly around the Songshan Lake area.

English Proficiency 

Guangdong scores in the “moderate” band on the EF English Proficiency Index, stronger than most inland provinces, helped by the province’s long export-trade history and proximity to Hong Kong. Within Guangdong, however, Dongguan’s English-speaking talent pool is shallower than Guangzhou’s or Shenzhen’s, reflecting its manufacturing rather than corporate-services base. Expect to pay a premium for genuinely bilingual hires and to plan translation support for most internal communications.

Salaries

The minimum wage rose to 2,080 yuan per month (around $288) on 1 March 2025, with a part-time hourly rate of 19.8 yuan ($2.74). Dongguan sits in Guangdong’s Category 2 bracket — the same tier as Foshan, Zhuhai and Zhongshan, and below the Category 1 rates that apply in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

In practice, manufacturing wages in Dongguan run well above the statutory floor, particularly for skilled and engineering roles around the Songshan Lake electronics cluster, where employers compete directly with Shenzhen for talent.

Social Insurance

Dongguan sets its own social insurance contribution bases and rates within the Guangdong provincial framework. The contribution base (the salary figure used to calculate contributions) is bounded by floor and ceiling values updated annually.

Example: 

• If you hire someone at 6,000 yuan per month, their pension contribution is calculated on their full 6,000 yuan salary.
• However, if you hire someone at 35,000 yuan per month, their pension contribution is calculated as if they earn 27,501 yuan (the maximum base).

Here’s how the contribution rates break down:

Housing Fund

Both employers and employees contribute to the housing fund in Dongguan. The contribution rate is set between 5% and 12%, with both parties using the same rate. Each company chooses one rate, applied uniformly across all employees. The contribution base is bounded by a local floor (linked to the minimum wage) and a ceiling (linked to local average wage data), and is adjusted annually.

To understand how these figures impact your company payroll cost, please use our salary calculator! 

Leave Policies

Dongguan follows Guangdong’s provincial leave rules, set principally by the Guangdong Population and Family Planning Regulations.

Note for employers: Guangdong’s 178-day maternity entitlement splits into two funding streams — the 98-day basic period is covered by maternity insurance, while the 80-day reward period is generally paid by the employer. Factor this into team and budget planning.

Sick Leave

Sick leave entitlements depend on the employee’s length of service and medical documentation. Sick-leave pay cannot be lower than 80% of Dongguan’s local minimum wage.

High Temperature Subsidy

Guangdong operates a mandatory high temperature subsidy that applies in Dongguan. Employers must pay it to employees who work in high-temperature conditions during the hot months.

• The Guangdong subsidy is 300 yuan per month, payable across the June-to-October period for employees exposed to high-temperature work.
• It must be paid in cash and cannot be substituted with cooling drinks or other supplies.
• The subsidy is in addition to the employee’s normal wage and cannot be counted as part of the minimum wage.

Given Dongguan’s hot, humid subtropical summers, this is a real consideration for any employer with outdoor or non-air-conditioned operations, including construction, logistics yards, and certain factory environments.

Ready to Hire in Dongguan?

Ready to hire in Dongguan without setting up a local entity? Talk to us about our China-focused EOR service and start onboarding talent in weeks.

The post Hiring in Dongguan: Labour Laws, Salaries and Best Practices appeared first on Kinyu.

Yiwu is a trading city first and a manufacturing city second. Its workforce skews towards sales, sourcing, logistics, cross-border e-commerce and international trade services. It also has one of the most genuinely international street-level business cultures in China, with thousands of long-term foreign resident traders.

Here’s what you need to know before hiring.

Quick Facts 

Who Should Consider Hiring in Yiwu?

Yiwu works best for companies in international trade, sourcing and procurement, cross-border e-commerce, logistics and freight forwarding, and light-consumer-goods sales. If your business involves buying, branding or shipping small commodities (jewellery, toys, stationery, gifts, accessories, hardware, homeware, seasonal goods) Yiwu is arguably the single most efficient place in the world to base that operation.

The city’s commercial gravity comes from the Yiwu International Trade City, a wholesale complex of 75,000-plus booths trading millions of product lines. Around it has grown a dense ecosystem of trading companies, sourcing agents, logistics providers, quality-inspection firms and e-commerce operators. Major domestic and international e-commerce platforms run regional service centres and warehouses in the city.

What Yiwu is not is a heavy-manufacturing or high-tech base. Many of the “factories” associated with Yiwu are actually trading companies, or sales offices for plants located elsewhere in Zhejiang. If you need precision engineering, large-scale electronics assembly or a deep technical-graduate pool, this isn’t the city for it.

Talent Profile

Yiwu’s talent pool is shaped by trade rather than industry. Its standout characteristic is language capability: because the market serves buyers from the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Latin America and Europe, the city has an unusually deep bench of multilingual sales and trade staff, including Arabic, Spanish, Russian and other languages rarely found at scale elsewhere in China.

English Proficiency 

Zhejiang scores 506 on the EF English Proficiency Index, placing it just below Hong Kong (538) and among the stronger-performing regions in China — nearby Hangzhou is the country’s top-scoring city. EF doesn’t track Yiwu specifically. However, because the market serves buyers from the Middle East, Africa, South Asia, Latin America and Europe, the city has an unusually deep bench of multilingual sales and trade staff, including Arabic, Spanish, Russian and other languages seldom found at scale elsewhere in China.

Salaries

The minimum wage is 2,660 yuan per month ($368) and 25 yuan per hour ($3.46) for part-time work, effective from 1 January 2026.

The city recorded urban per-capita disposable income of 97,170 yuan in 2024, the highest of any county-level city in China, and a figure that exceeds all four tier-one cities. This reflects a population with a high share of business owners, traders and commission-earning sales staff rather than a conventional salaried wage profile

Social Insurance

Yiwu follows Zhejiang’s provincial social insurance framework. The contribution base (the salary figure used to calculate contributions) is bounded by floor and ceiling values (currently 4,986 – 25,299 yuan) set by the province and updated annually.

Example: 

• If you hire someone at 8,000 yuan per month, their pension contribution is calculated on their full salary. However, if you hire someone at 30,000 yuan per month, their pension contribution is calculated as if they earn 25,299 yuan (the maximum base).

Here’s how the contribution rates break down:

Housing Fund

Both employers and employees contribute to the housing fund in Yiwu. The contribution rate is set between 5% and 12%, with both parties using the same rate. Each company chooses one rate, applied uniformly across all employees. The contribution base is bounded by a local floor (linked to the minimum wage) and a ceiling (linked to three times the local average wage), and is adjusted annually.

To understand how these figures impact your company payroll cost, please use our salary calculator! 

Leave Policies

Yiwu follows Zhejiang’s provincial leave rules.

Sick Leave

Sick leave entitlements depend on the employee’s length of service and medical documentation. Sick-leave pay cannot be lower than 80% of Yiwu’s local minimum wage.

The post Hiring in Yiwu: Labour Laws, Salaries and Best Practices appeared first on Kinyu.

None of the 50 firms surveyed plan to exit.

The report, produced with support from the U.K. Department for Business and Trade and Kinyu, found that geopolitical tensions and policy uncertainty ranked as the top source of disruption, cited by 52% of respondents. Tariffs and trade restrictions followed at 50%.

But the survey suggests the damage comes less from the tariffs themselves than from their unpredictability. Nearly half of respondents — 46% — said uncertainty about future policy was the single biggest barrier to building supply chain resilience.

“We can absorb a tariff. What we cannot absorb is not knowing whether it will still be there next month,” one senior logistics executive said at a roundtable in Guangzhou.

Benjamin King, CEO of Kinyu and chair of the BritCham South China Supply Chain Working Group, said the findings reflect a business community that is adapting rather than retreating. “China’s role in global supply chains remains structural,” he noted, pointing to the report’s finding that more than half of respondents primarily rely on China for sourcing. Of those that have diversified to Southeast Asia, several reported costs 10–15% higher and continued dependency on Chinese raw materials upstream.

One in four firms reported making no supply chain adjustments in the past 12 months. The most common response among those that did act was increased monitoring of geopolitical risk, cited by 32%.

The report also found that net zero commitments are increasingly tied to supply chain operations. Roughly 85% of carbon emissions for global supply chain firms sit in Scope 3 — embedded in purchasing, supplier operations and logistics. No Chinese company has yet certified through BSI’s net zero pathway standard.

The findings draw on the survey of 50 firms, three roundtable discussions with over 60 supply chain leaders across Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Shanghai, facility visits, and a Net Zero Conference held in Guangzhou on March 10, 2026.

The post BritCham South China Releases Supply Chain Resilience Report appeared first on Kinyu.

The charge targets a specific business model, one where individual orders bypass traditional bulk shipping and go straight from a Chinese warehouse to someone’s door. But that model has grown so large, so profitable, and so deeply embedded in global logistics infrastructure that a customs charge is unlikely to stop it.

Shein and Temu popularised the approach. They were among the first to recognise that shipping individual orders directly to consumers was often cheaper than the traditional model of buying inventory in bulk, shipping it to a European warehouse, and distributing it from there. The savings come from keeping stock in China until the moment of sale, avoiding the costs and risks of holding inventory abroad.

Since then, the model has spawned an entire ecosystem of 3PL businesses offering services that simply did not exist before. EcomFlow, for example, lets a merchant in London list and sell products online while EcomFlow handles storage and delivery from a warehouse in China. The merchant is, in effect, a storefront. The warehousing, the logistics, and the customs liability are handled by EcomFlow. For the merchant, the practical effect is the ability to source and sell from China without needing any physical presence in the market they’re selling into.

Hundreds of operators now offer variations of the same service. China’s cross-border e-commerce trade reached 2.75 trillion yuan in 2025, up 15.5% from the year before, according to Chinese customs data.

For years, commentators assumed the model only worked because of de minimis exemptions, the threshold below which imported goods attract no customs duty. But while the exemption helped in the early stages, the underlying cost structure has since matured. Removing a tax benefit changes the margin. It does not change the arithmetic.

For small commodity manufacturers in the EU, it would no doubt be reassuring to believe otherwise. But the ability to source and sell directly from China is not really about tax advantages in many cases. For a growing number of buyers, it is simply the most economically rational way to trade.

One reason the model is so hard to displace is that storing goods in China is often cheaper than in Birmingham or Rotterdam, and fulfilling from origin ties up less capital in unsold inventory. Goods only move once an order is placed.

Getting goods to customers in Europe or the U.S. has also become faster and, in some cases, cheaper than a decade ago, helped by stronger air-cargo capacity. China’s air cargo throughput reached 21.9 million tonnes in 2025, up 9% year on year, and IATA recorded 2025 as a record year for global air cargo volume. For merchants, that infrastructure makes global scaling possible in a way it simply was not before.

Underpinning all of it is China’s manufacturing base. No other country has factories producing such a wide range of goods, clustered so closely together, with the ports, warehouses and freight networks already in place to ship them anywhere in the world within days.

Businesses outside of traditional e-commerce are now adopting similar models. Bloom Build, for instance, takes orders from individuals renovating their own homes for construction components and fulfills them directly from Chinese partners, without ever holding stock in Australia. In the coming years, similar providers are likely to emerge across a wide range of sectors.

Beijing has also been supportive of the model. In May 2024, Xi Jinping called for the accelerated development of new models such as cross-border e-commerce. Multiple ministries have since coordinated preferential tax treatment and eased administrative requirements for the sector, while state-backed industrial parks have sprung up offering sellers subsidised space and tailored tax support.

None of that is to say that buyers should abandon their China operations and outsource everything to a modern 3PL. Sourcing from China has always required supplier relationships and on-the-ground management, and that remains true here. What this model changes is not that reality, but where the logistics infrastructure needs to sit.

What companies like EcomFlow and Bloom Build are selling, at their core, is China’s supply chain capability. The ability to source from the world’s most competitive manufacturing base, store goods at low cost, and deliver them anywhere within days, without building any of that infrastructure yourself. And that’s likely worth far more than a 3 euro duty.

The post Why Selling Direct from China Keeps Growing appeared first on Kinyu.

Most of us aren’t running operations anywhere near that scale, and most whistleblowing cases don’t end in criminal courts. But the GSK story illustrates what’s at stake when a China operation isn’t clean, and what can happen when a disgruntled employee decides to make that someone else’s problem.

What Actually Counts as Whistleblowing in China?

In China, whistleblowing refers broadly to any report or complaint filed by an individual or entity about a suspected breach of law or regulation. Employees, competitors, anonymous sources and even other companies can all be “whistleblowers” under Chinese law.

For employers, the most common reports tend to involve:

• Violations of labour or social insurance law (unpaid wages, improper contracts, missing social contributions)
• Food, drug, or product safety violations
• Financial misconduct (bribery, fraud, securities violations)
• Environmental or workplace safety breaches

Reports can be made internally to a manager or compliance function, or externally to a labour bureau, regulator, or law enforcement agency (often for a reward).

Does China have Whistleblower Protections?

Under Chinese law, protection applies to any individual or entity that files a report or complaint — not just employees of the company being reported. However, in practice, most of the protections that matter to employers relate to their own staff.

Key protections for employees include:

• Confidentiality. Labour bureaus are legally required to keep the details of reports and complaints confidential, including the identity of the whistleblower.
• Protection from retaliation. Chinese law prohibits employers from retaliating against employees who file complaints. Employers found to have retaliated face fines from the labour authority, plus a rectification order.
• No contracting out. You cannot ask employees to sign away their right to file complaints. Any contractual term to that effect is void under Chinese law.

Do You Need to Have a Whistleblowing Policy?

For most foreign employers operating through a WFOE or joint venture structure, there is no strict legal obligation under Chinese law to implement a local whistleblowing policy. However, that doesn’t mean you should skip it.

A functioning internal whistleblowing channel gives employees somewhere to raise concerns before escalating externally to regulators. It also demonstrates good governance, which matters if you ever face regulatory scrutiny. Most multinational compliance frameworks (U.S. FCPA, U.K. Bribery Act, EU Whistleblowing Directive) already require group-level policies that your China entity should be aligned with anyway.

Financial Rewards for Whistleblowers

China’s reward system gives unhappy employees a real financial reason to go external rather than internal.

For major violations reported to market regulators, whistleblowers can receive up to 1 million yuan ($450,000). To qualify, the allegation needs to involve serious misconduct (think food or drug safety failures, systemic regulatory risks, or suspected criminal conduct).

For breaches of social insurance law in some cities, rewards are more modest — Beijing, for example, sets a range of 100 yuan to 5,000 yuan. At the high end, employees who report corruption or bribery by government officials can receive rewards of 500,000 yuan or more.

There are two defences here:

The first is cultural: a whistleblowing policy that employees actually believe in. Research consistently shows that people prefer to raise concerns internally first as going to the authorities is stressful and uncertain. They only go external when they feel they have no other choice. Give them a credible internal channel, take complaints seriously, and most people will use it.

The second is operational: keep your China operation airtight. Compliant contracts, accurate social security contributions, clean expense practices, no undeclared payments — if there’s nothing worth reporting, the reward system becomes irrelevant.

What To Do When a Complaint Comes In

First: take it seriously. Chinese company law imposes a personal duty of diligence on directors and senior managers. If a manager sits on a credible allegation, something goes wrong, and losses follow, they can face personal compensation claims.

Second: get local legal advice before doing anything else. If the allegation involves conduct that could amount to a crime, Chinese law may create an obligation to report it to the authorities. But going to regulators prematurely, before you understand the full picture, can make things significantly worse. It’s a judgment call that needs careful thought, and it’s not one to make alone.

Third: document everything. How you handle the complaint matters almost as much as the complaint itself.

The post Employee Whistleblowing in China: What Every Employer Needs to Know appeared first on Kinyu.

But the city has moved well beyond electronics assembly. BYD’s Zhengzhou super-factory helped push the city’s annual vehicle output past 1 million units for the first time in 2024. It’s also home to China’s first airport-based economic zone, a major freight rail link to Europe, and a large cluster of universities.

Put simply, Zhengzhou today looks very different from the city it was a decade ago. If you’re considering hiring in Zhengzhou, here’s what you need to know about wages, social insurance, leave entitlements and the local talent pool before you commit.

Quick Facts 

Who Should Consider Hiring in Zhengzhou?

Zhengzhou works for firms in electronics assembly, new-energy vehicles, auto components, frozen food, logistics, and aviation-adjacent industries that want access to one of China’s deepest labour pools at costs well below the coastal first-tier cities.

Henan’s roughly 100-million-strong permanent population gives Zhengzhou a recruitment advantage that few other cities can match, particularly for production, warehousing, and large-volume operations.

The city has also become a serious automotive hub, driven by BYD’s Airport Economy Zone super-factory and supported by SAIC, Yutong and Zhengzhou Nissan. That concentration is particularly valuable for companies in EV supply chains, battery components or auto parts.

Many businesses pair a Zhengzhou production or back-office operation with sales and corporate functions in Shanghai, Beijing or Shenzhen — using Zhengzhou for scale and cost while keeping client-facing roles in cities with deeper bilingual talent.

Talent Profile

English Proficiency 

Henan province scores 433 on the EF English Proficiency Index — among the lowest of all Chinese regions tracked, and well inside the “very low proficiency” band. Zhengzhou itself scores 439, ranking last among the 18 Chinese cities the index tracks individually, 21 points below the next-lowest city (Chongqing at 460), and around 75 points below Beijing and Hangzhou at the top.

For comparison, Hong Kong scores 549 and Beijing 514. Foreign companies hiring locally should expect meaningful language barriers for non-specialist roles, and may need to either recruit returnees and university graduates from Zhengzhou’s research universities, or budget for in-house English training.

Salaries

The minimum wage is 2,350 yuan per month ($330) and 23 yuan per hour ($3.23) for part-time work, effective from 1 December 2025. Zhengzhou sits in Henan’s Category A (top tier) bracket alongside the city’s surrounding county-level cities.

Zhengzhou’s non-private sector employees earned an average of 106,674 yuan ($15,000) in 2024, while private sector workers earned 57,738 yuan ($8,119).

Social Insurance

Zhengzhou follows Henan province’s social insurance framework. The contribution base (the salary amount used to calculate contributions) has minimum and maximum limits set by the local government:

Example: 

• If you hire someone at 5,000 yuan per month, their pension contribution is calculated on their full 5,000 yuan salary
• However, if you hire someone at 25,000 yuan per month, their pension contribution is calculated as if they earn 19,155 yuan (the maximum base)

Here’s how the contribution rates break down:

*Medical insurance employer rate is temporarily reduced from 8% to 7% under a Henan-wide policy.

**Work injury rates vary by industry risk classification (eight tiers, ranging from 0.2% for office work up to 1.9% for high-risk industries like mining or heavy industrial chemicals).

Housing Fund

Both employers and employees contribute to the housing fund in Zhengzhou. The contribution rate ranges from 5% to 12%, with both parties using the same rate. Each company can only choose one contribution rate that applies to all employees.

• The contribution base ranges from 2,100 yuan to 27,520 yuan per month.

To understand how these figures impact your company payroll cost, please use our salary calculator! 

Zhengzhou Social Insurance Considerations

The main complication is timing: contribution bases adjust annually in July to track the previous year’s average wage data, and the medical insurance employer rate has been on a “temporarily reduced” footing for several years.

Also worth knowing: Zhengzhou runs a notable graduate retention scheme. Doctoral, master’s, and bachelor’s graduates who settle in the city, find local employment, and enroll in social insurance can claim monthly living subsidies of 1,500, 1,000, and 500 yuan respectively for up to 36 months. The application window is three years from graduation. For employers competing for fresh graduate talent, this is a useful card to play.

Leave Polices

Zhengzhou follows Henan province’s leave framework, which is among the most generous in the country — particularly for maternity and paternity.

Sick Leave

Sick leave entitlements depend on the employee’s length of service and medical documentation. Sick-leave pay cannot be lower than 80% of Zhengzhou’s local minimum wage.

High Temperature Subsidy

Zhengzhou implements Henan’s mandatory high temperature subsidy for employees working in hot conditions from June to September.

• Employers must pay this subsidy to employees working outdoors when temperatures reach 35 C or above, or indoors if the workplace cannot be cooled below 33 C. The subsidy is 15 yuan per working day (raised from 10 yuan in 2022). Must be paid in cash; cooling drinks, watermelon, or other items cannot be substituted for the subsidy.

Note that Zhengzhou regularly hits 40 C in July and August. When the meteorological bureau issues a forecast of 40 C or above, outdoor work must be suspended; between 37 C and 40 C, outdoor work cannot exceed six accumulated hours per day. Build these compliance triggers into your summer planning, particularly for logistics, construction and delivery operations.

The post Hiring in Zhengzhou: Labour Laws, Salaries and Best Practices appeared first on Kinyu.

An HR Business Partner (HRBP) is the best hire you can make to help manage that complexity. They sit close to the business, handle everything from compliance and payroll to recruitment and employee relations, and act as the bridge between your headquarters and your China team.

Here’s what a good one looks like, and how to hire them.

What Does an HRBP in China Do?

Many foreign companies in China have a country manager focused on commercial outcomes and a finance person watching the numbers. You can think of the HRBP as the third leg — the one keeping the team compliant, engaged and functional. Here’s what a standard week might look like.

What to Look For When Hiring

How to Hire an HRBP in China

There are two obvious routes, and both have drawbacks.

You can hire someone directly, but without a legal entity in China that means navigating employment contracts, social insurance, tax withholding and local compliance from scratch. Most foreign companies aren’t set up for it. Or you can use a consultancy or outsourcing firm, which is lower commitment but comes with less control and no real accountability to your team.

The third option is an Employer of Record. An EOR becomes the legal employer in China, handling payroll, benefits and compliance, while you manage the person’s day-to-day work. You get a dedicated HRBP on the ground without the legal complexity of setting up your own entity.

That’s what Kinyu’s China Desk does. We handle the employment infrastructure and can connect you with experienced HRBPs in our network, so you can focus on finding the right person for your business.

Get in Touch

Need a senior HR Business Partner on the ground in China? Talk to us about combining an experienced HRBP with Kinyu’s China Desk EOR platform.

The post Hiring an HR Business Partner (HRBP) in China: Hiring Guide appeared first on Kinyu.

For international buyers sourcing from Chinese manufacturers, these events remain one of the most effective ways to find reliable suppliers, inspect products firsthand and build the kind of relationships that are difficult to establish over email or video call.

But with so many exhibitions on the calendar, choosing the right one matters. Attend the wrong fair and you will waste time, travel budget and energy walking halls full of products that have nothing to do with your business. Attend the right one and you could walk away with vetted suppliers, competitive pricing and a much clearer picture of what the market has to offer.

This guide breaks down the major China trade fairs by industry, explains how to pick the right event for your sourcing needs and offers practical tips for making the most of your visit.

Why Trade Fairs Still Matter for China Sourcing

Chinese trade fairs are large-scale exhibitions where Chinese manufacturers, exporters and service providers showcase their products to domestic and international buyers. These events range from massive, multi-industry exhibitions like the Canton Fair to highly specialised shows focused on a single sector such as textiles, electronics or furniture.

For international buyers, trade fairs serve three main purposes. First, supplier discovery. Walking a trade fair floor gives you access to hundreds or even thousands of manufacturers in a single location, many of whom do not have a significant online presence. Second, product verification. You can see, touch and compare products in person rather than relying on catalogue images and samples shipped across the world. Third, relationship building. Face-to-face meetings remain the most effective way to establish trust with Chinese suppliers, negotiate terms and gauge whether a manufacturer is the right fit for your business.

China’s trade fair ecosystem is the largest in the world. Events take place across major cities including Guangzhou, Shanghai, Shenzhen and Beijing, with most concentrated in the manufacturing hubs of the Pearl River Delta and Yangtze River Delta.

Why Choosing the Right Trade Fair Matters

Not all trade fairs are created equal. Some cover broad product categories and attract tens of thousands of exhibitors, while others are niche events with a few hundred booths. Choosing the wrong fair can mean spending thousands on flights, hotels and logistics only to find that the exhibitors are not relevant to your industry.

There are a few common pitfalls. Attending a generalist fair when you need specialist suppliers can leave you overwhelmed and without actionable leads. Visiting a smaller regional fair when you need access to a wide pool of manufacturers can limit your options. And timing matters too. Some fairs coincide with peak production seasons when factories are busiest, which can affect your ability to secure meetings or negotiate favourable terms.

This is where having someone on the ground with sourcing experience in China can make a big difference. At Kinyu, we often help international businesses identify the right exhibitions for their industry and make the most of their time in China.

Major Trade Fairs in China by Industry

Furniture Trade Fairs in China

China is the world’s largest furniture exporter, and the country’s furniture trade fairs reflect that scale.

China International Furniture Fair (CIFF) is one of the largest furniture exhibitions in the world. Held in Guangzhou in March and Shanghai in September, CIFF covers home furniture, office furniture, outdoor living, home decor and home textiles. The Guangzhou edition alone draws thousands of exhibitors from across China and internationally. CIFF is particularly strong for buyers sourcing mass-market and mid-range furniture, though it also features a growing design-led segment. For property developers, hotel groups and interior designers, it is an essential event.

Interzum Guangzhou runs alongside CIFF and focuses on furniture production, woodworking machinery and interior materials. If your interest is in the components and materials side of the furniture supply chain rather than finished products, this is the one to attend.

The Canton Fair also features a significant furniture and home decor segment in its second phase, offering a broader but less specialised selection.

Electronics Trade Fairs in China

China’s electronics manufacturing ecosystem is centred in the Pearl River Delta, and Shenzhen in particular. The city hosts several major electronics fairs throughout the year.

China Electronics Fair (CEF) is the country’s longest-running electronics exhibition, held since 1964. The Shenzhen edition typically takes place in April, covering electronic components, semiconductors, sensors, consumer electronics, smart home devices and emerging technologies like AI computing and IoT. With over 1,200 exhibitors, CEF is a comprehensive sourcing platform for buyers across the electronics supply chain.

China Information Technology Expo (CITE) runs alongside CEF in Shenzhen and focuses on information technology products and solutions, including smart terminals, robotics, wearables and data centre technologies.

Hong Kong Electronics Fair, organised by the HKTDC, is one of the largest electronics exhibitions in Asia. While technically across the border, it is easily accessible from Shenzhen and attracts a significant number of mainland Chinese manufacturers. It is particularly strong for consumer electronics and components.

ES SHOW in Shenzhen (typically held in October) is a dedicated electronics sourcing fair focused on components and materials for the electronics manufacturing and processing industry.

The Canton Fair’s first phase also covers electronics and household electrical appliances extensively.

Textile and Apparel Trade Fairs

China’s textile industry is vast, and the trade fair landscape reflects the diversity of the sector.

Intertextile Shanghai Apparel Fabrics is the flagship textile event in Asia. Organised by Messe Frankfurt, it runs twice a year with a spring edition (March) and an autumn edition (August), both at the National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai. With over 3,000 exhibitors spanning 190,000 square metres, it covers apparel fabrics, accessories, functional textiles and sustainable materials. It is the go-to event for fashion brands, garment manufacturers and textile traders sourcing fabrics and trims from China.

China International Trade Fair for Home Textiles (Intertextile Shanghai Home Textiles) is the companion event for buyers sourcing bedding, curtains, upholstery fabrics and other home textile products. It typically runs in August alongside the apparel edition.

The Canton Fair’s third phase covers textiles, garments and accessories, providing a broader but less specialised alternative.

Industrial Trade Fairs in China

For buyers sourcing industrial products, machinery, hardware and tools, China hosts several heavyweight events.

China International Industry Fair (CIIF) is one of the country’s most important industrial exhibitions, held annually in Shanghai in October. CIIF consists of nine concurrent fairs covering industrial automation, robotics, metalworking, CNC machine tools, new materials, energy and environmental technologies. It attracts exhibitors and visitors from across the global manufacturing sector and is essential for anyone sourcing industrial equipment or components from China.

China International Hardware Show (CIHS) takes place in Shanghai in late September. Organised by Koelnmesse and the China National Hardware Association, it is the largest hardware fair in Asia and the second largest in the world after Cologne. CIHS covers power tools, hand tools, building hardware, fasteners, safety equipment and garden tools, with around 2,800 exhibitors.

China International Hardware Fair (CIHF) is a separate event held in Shanghai in March, covering a similar range of products with around 3,100 exhibitors and a strong focus on connecting international buyers with Chinese hardware manufacturers.

Find the Right Trade Fair and Suppliers with Kinyu

China’s trade fair ecosystem is enormous, and for international buyers it represents one of the best opportunities to find reliable manufacturing partners. But getting the most out of these events requires preparation, industry knowledge and, ideally, support from people who understand how sourcing in China actually works.

Kinyu is China’s leading supply chain-focused Employer of Record. We help international businesses build and manage sourcing teams on the ground in China, from procurement specialists and quality control inspectors to logistics managers and sourcing office setups. Whether you are attending your first trade fair or your 15th, our team can help you identify the right events, prepare for your visit and follow up with suppliers after the show.

If you are planning a sourcing trip to China and want to make the most of it, get in touch. We would love to hear from you.

The post A Guide to China Trade Fairs: How to Choose the Right Fair for Your Industry appeared first on Kinyu.