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EMPLOYEE IN CHINA

Nobody in China works only for you. Your own employee does.

The factory's salesman works for the factory. The agent works for his commission. Your own person in China works for you, on your instructions, every day.
We employ them properly under Chinese law, so you never need to open a company here. You tell us the job. We find the person with you, train them, and stand behind them.
Customs is looking harder at origin claims and supply chain paperwork, in the US and now in Europe. The file has to exist before anyone asks for it. Your person builds it while they do the job.
From $595 a month. On top of that, the real salary and social insurance at cost, plus a 10% handling fee on what we pay out in China. Every line is on your invoice.
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A China Agent team member in a china-agent.com shirt with three colleagues outside a building in China
HIRED TO YOUR JOB, NOT OURS

You tell us the job. We find the person.

There's no fixed job description. Tell us what you need:

  • A merchandiser who can hold a factory to a spec
  • A QC person who knows your product category
  • A designer who can sit in the mold room
  • Someone to manage the suppliers you already have

Your person can look for new suppliers if you tell them to. China Agent never does, and never takes a cut from any factory.

We've been putting people in China for our clients since day one. Here's how it works.

We hire together. We write the ad and run it in the hub where your factories are. We know what the market pays at each level, so your salary gets the person it should. We shortlist and sit in the interviews. You see every candidate and you decide. We tell you what we see, because we've been reading factory people here since 2009.

We train together. Supplier due diligence, negotiation, contracts and checking work quality at the factory, all shaped around your products and how you want things done.

If it isn't working, we replace together. No hiring drama, no severance fight, and you don't start over alone. You say the word and we handle the China side.

It's your person and your team. We're the ones standing next to you while you build it.

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THE NEW REASON

Why a person in China now matters for customs

The evidence customs wants sits inside the factory: who really made the goods, where the material came from, what the line produced, a dated photo of your goods on it.

It can't be created after the notice arrives. Either someone was there collecting it, or nobody was.

In June 2026, CBP's forced labor guidance said importers must trace goods back to the raw material. Executive Order 14411, signed that month, set a minimum penalty floor with no mitigation for repeat offenders. In July, the DOJ/DHS Trade Fraud Resource Guide repeated that you can't hand your duty of reasonable care to your exporter or your broker.

Selling into Europe? The EU's forced labour ban applies from December 14, 2027, and EU customs will ask the same questions.

Your person follows the chain back. Your direct factory is the easy part. The risk sits a tier or two behind it: the mill, the component vendor, the subcontractor nobody mentioned. Someone who can visit and ask is how that gets found.

Your person keeps the record as it happens. It's organized the way CBP's own guidance describes, not rebuilt months later when someone asks.

Straight talk, before you spend a dollar. A person in China does not stop a detention. The duty of reasonable care stays with you as importer. What changes is the evidence you can put on the table, and customs decides on the evidence. We help you have a file worth submitting.

Check how the rules apply to your goods with your customs broker or trade counsel.

Sample China Agent monthly cost report for an entry-level employee in Guangzhou, with every invoice line shown
WHAT IT ACTUALLY COSTS

Every line. Shown to you.

If an agency won't tell you what your employee is actually paid, the gap is usually where it makes its money.

Here's our real sample: an entry-level person in Guangzhou.

Line Amount
Salary ¥5,000.00
Employer social insurance ¥1,202.50
Housing fund ¥150.00
Employment cost ¥6,352.50
10% handling fee ¥635.25
Total paid in China ¥6,987.75 (about $1,043 at ¥6.7 to the dollar)
Our service fee (no handling fee on it) $595
Your monthly invoice about $1,638

The handling fee applies only to money we pay out in China for you: salary, social insurance, expenses and anything else your person needs. It covers bank transfers, currency conversion, government and related fees.

You choose the salary level, from ¥5,000 to ¥15,000. More money buys more experience, and you see the real number either way. Rates are set locally, so Foshan, Shenzhen, Yiwu and Jinan differ from Guangzhou.

You'll know your exact monthly number once we've picked your person and agreed their contract.

PRICING

Three ways to do this

$595 a month: your person.
Your own full-time person in China. We hire them with you, train them, insure them, employ them properly under Chinese law, and keep eyes on the work.

$895 a month: your person, in our office.
Rent, desk, equipment, internet and utilities are included. A room where a factory can be received and samples can be held changes how seriously you're taken.

$1,595 a month: your person, our office, and a Chinese law firm on retainer.
When your person finds a problem at the factory, you're not writing an email and hoping. A Chinese law firm is already on retainer for you, working under Chinese law, where your contract is worth something and a letter on their paper gets a factory's attention.

Contracts, including your OEM+NNN agreement. A demand letter when a factory goes quiet. Someone who can walk into a Chinese court if it ever comes to that.

This is the tier where you stop hoping and start holding the other side to something.

Want your own office instead? We pay the rent and costs for you and bill them at cost plus the 10% handling fee. Or use a shared office you pay directly, and we charge nothing for it. We'll work out which fits on the call.

The money terms

Setup fee, from $1,800. One flat fee at the start. It covers the job ad, the full hiring packet, assessing fit and drafting the labor contract. Harder roles cost more, and you get the number before anything begins.

First invoice: the first month plus the last month. The last month covers the severance Chinese law requires. At each yearly re-signing, one more month is added, matching the one-month-per-year rule.

Anything extra is quoted separately. Finding an office, extra legal drafts, or setting up your own company in China. Nothing gets bundled in without you seeing it.

Map of China marking China Agent hubs in Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, Yiwu and Jinan, and Hong Kong
WHERE

Where your person works

Five hubs, each legally registered, with its own office and hub manager: Guangzhou, Foshan, Shenzhen, Yiwu and Jinan. Your person works in the hub nearest your factories.

Factory somewhere else? We can employ anywhere in China. We'll tell you straight what we can and can't watch from a distance.

FAQs

What people ask before they start.

. They work full-time for you. This arrangement is called an Employer of Record. You get the employee; we carry the legal employment, insurance, social payments and labor contract. 

What a local employee changes is the quality of evidence you can produce: supply chain mapping, production records kept as they happen, dated photographs and documented supplier engagement. CBP decides on the strength of the evidence package. We help you have one worth submitting.

In each city we have our own business license, local bank account and government registration. We employ your person, pay their salary and remit their social insurance. You get a properly employed person without registering your own company in China.

We sign the labor contract in our own name, pay the salary from our own local account, and remit social insurance and housing fund directly to the local authority. We can give you the registered name and business license before you commit to anything.

Asia Agent Pte Ltd in Singapore runs the wider network across Asia, and China Agent is part of that network. You'll be told exactly which entity you're contracting with.

Employer social insurance adds roughly 24% on top, plus the housing fund. Personal costs move the total too, like how far someone travels and whether food is covered. Our service fee is separate and starts at $595 a month. In our entry-level sample, the total paid in China, including our 10% handling fee on the payroll, is about ¥6,988 a month, roughly $1,043, and you see every line of it. The handling fee covers bank transfers, currency conversion, government and related fees, and it isn't charged on the service fee.

 

Some clients hire a merchandiser, some a QC person, some a designer, some a person to find and manage suppliers for them. Tell us the job and we'll find the person and train them for it. Whatever they do, they work on your instructions, and China Agent takes no commission on anything you buy.

 

They work only for you, and China Agent takes no commission from any factory.

 

One of our offices: $895 a month, office included. Your own office, paid through us: we pay it for you and bill the cost plus the 10% handling fee. A shared office or another option you pay directly: we charge nothing for it and don't handle the payment.

A room where a factory can be received, samples can be held and your person has somewhere to work changes how seriously you're taken.

 

 Enforcement increasingly looks past the paperwork to production capacity, equipment, input sourcing and whether the transformation claimed was real or cosmetic. That means someone visiting, reviewing records at the factory, and following the input back a tier or two. It's the difference between what your supplier says and what you can show. 

Customs looks for evidence from the factory: who made the goods, where the inputs came from, and records kept at the time. Your own person in China can visit, ask, and keep those records as they happen.

 Your employee works only for you, under your instructions, and China Agent takes no cut of anything you buy. Our fee doesn't move with your order.

 You say the word and we handle the China side. The severance Chinese law requires is already covered by the last month on your first invoice.

The last month covers the severance Chinese law requires you to pay. At each yearly re-signing, one more month is added, matching the one-month-per-year obligation.

NEXT STEP

Thirty minutes.

Tell us what you're making, where, and what's going wrong. We'll tell you what applies to your products and what this would cost. If it isn't right for you, we'll say so.
No sales script. You'll talk to someone from our team who does this work in China.