Reforms And Changes Of Foreign Employment Policies In China

I.General Policies of Foreign Employment

In China, only "qualified" entities are legally permitted to "employ" people (i.e., "employees").  In particular, all domestic businesses or other types of entities are qualified to directly hire people, while not all foreign entities doing business in China are so qualified. For example, a representative office in China of an overseas entity which was incorporated in a jurisdiction other than China is not qualified to directly hire employees because under China law such office can hire employees only by way of a seconding arrangement with a personnel seconding entity.

However, is a foreign-invested entity, such as a so-called wholly-foreign owned enterprise("WFOE") or a sino-foreign Joint Venture in China ("Joint Venture") qualified to directly hire employees without resorting to the services of a seconding entity?