31 What options are available after turning 18?

For the military, the Military Service Law says: "Male citizens who have reached 18 shall be called up for active service; those not called up that year may still be called up before they reach 22. The call-up age for graduates of ordinary higher-education institutions may be relaxed to 24, and for graduate students to 26." For the civil service, see Article 18 of the Regulations on the Recruitment of Civil Servants. The application conditions include "age 18 or older and 35 or younger" and "a junior-college education or above." Both may be adjusted with approval from the civil service authority at provincial level or above. Article 19 lists 5 categories of people who may not apply. Examples are people who have received a criminal penalty for a crime, people expelled from public office, and people listed as targets of joint punishment for breach of trust. For firefighters, see the Measures for Recruiting Firefighters of the National Comprehensive Fire and Rescue Teams. Article 5: "age 18 or older and 22 or younger" and "a high-school education or above." Article 6: "people with a junior-college education or above, and discharged soldiers of the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police... the age may be relaxed to 24." For military civilian posts, see Article 9 of the Regulations on Civilian Personnel of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The basic conditions include "having reached 18." Article 19 of those regulations says that the maximum age for a first recruitment into a lower-rank post is 35. A lower-rank post is an entry-level post. For public institutions, see Article 8 of the Regulations on Personnel Management of Public Institutions: "Newly hired staff of public institutions shall be openly recruited from society." For sole proprietors, see the Regulations on Promoting the Development of Individual Industrial and Commercial Households: "Citizens with the capacity to operate a business... who register according to law as individual industrial and commercial households are covered by these regulations." For the self-study exam, see the Interim Regulations on Higher Education Self-Study Examinations. Article 3: "Citizens of the People's Republic of China may take the higher education self-study examination under these regulations, without restriction of sex, age, ethnicity, race, or level of education already received." Article 20: "Current students of full-time schools of every type and level may not register." For government-funded teacher-training students, see Article 2 of the Implementation Measures for Government-Funded Education of Teacher-Training Students on a Bachelor's-to-Master's Track at Normal Universities Directly under the Ministry of Education. Recruitment is only at 6 normal universities under the ministry: Beijing Normal University, East China Normal University, Northeast Normal University, Central China Normal University, Shaanxi Normal University, and Southwest University. The bachelor's and graduate stages are designed as one track and assessed in stages. After the bachelor's, you continue into the graduate program. Tuition and housing during school are borne by central finance, and there is also a living stipend. Article 5: "Recruitment of government-funded teacher-training students uses early-batch admission," meaning they are admitted before the regular batch. For targeted medical students, see the Notice on Doing Well the Employment Placement and Contract Performance of Rural Order-Based Tuition-Free Medical Students. It says: "After admission, and before receiving the admission notice, an agreement must be signed with the training school and with the county health department... and the human resources and social security department of the place of directed employment." For working abroad, see the Regulations on the Administration of Foreign Labor Cooperation. Article 5: engaging in foreign labor cooperation requires approval from the commerce authority and an operating qualification. Article 7, paragraph 4: "Without obtaining the foreign labor cooperation qualification certificate according to law and completing registration, one may not engage in foreign labor cooperation." A company without this certificate that organizes people to work abroad is itself breaking the law. Article 8, paragraph 2: "No unit or individual may organize workers to work abroad in the name of business, tourism, study, or the like." Platform orders and flexible employment have no statutory education threshold. The basis for insuring yourself and for occupational injury coverage is items 11 and 12 of this section. For paid work, the Compulsory Education Law says: "Employers are prohibited from hiring school-age children and adolescents who should be receiving compulsory education." Article 2 of the Provisions on Prohibiting the Use of Child Labor states that no one under 16 may be hired. The penalties are in section 23, item 1 (under 16).

Registration is in the Provisions on Military Service Registration. They say: "The military service organ of the people's government of a county, autonomous county, city without districts, or municipal district shall, before October 31 each year, organize initial military service registration for male citizens in its area who reach 18 before December 31 of that year." The same provisions also say: "Initial military service registration is mainly done online, completed by the citizen on the military service registration network platform." What happens if you do not register is in Article 57, paragraph 1, of the Military Service Law. That paragraph covers "refusing or evading military service registration." The penalty is: "the county people's government orders correction by a deadline; if it is not corrected in time, the county people's government forces performance of the military service duty and imposes a fine." Article 15 of the Military Service Law says the people subject to initial military service registration are "male citizens who reach 18 before December 31 each year." Article 20, paragraph 2, says: "According to the needs of the armed forces, female citizens may be called up for active service under the preceding paragraph." Article 15 of the Provisions on Military Service Registration says: "According to the needs of the armed forces... female citizens who meet the conditions may be organized for reserve registration." The Military Service Law also says: "The term of active service for a conscript is 2 years." "According to the needs of the armed forces and the person's own wish, citizens who have reached 17 but are not yet 18 may be called up for active service." A non-commissioned officer "who has served 12 years, or who meets other conditions set by the state, is assigned a job by the local people's government at county level or above in the place of placement." A non-commissioned officer "who has served 30 years, or who has reached 55, or who meets other conditions set by the state, is placed in retirement." Assigning a job means the government gives you a job. Retirement placement means you step down under retirement rules. The Regulations on Conscription say: "Priority goes to ensuring the call-up of graduates of ordinary higher-education institutions and of recruits with special requirements for political quality, physical condition, or professional skill." Those regulations also say: "Where the person to be called up is a full-time student or a graduating student of an ordinary higher-education institution, the call-up may be at the place of household registration before enrollment, or at the place of the school" (nationwide).

Article 57, Paragraph 1, Item 2 of the Military Service Law explicitly states that “any conscript who refuses or evades enlistment shall be subject to penalties.” These penalties include a requirement to correct the behavior within a set timeframe; if they still refuse, the local county-level government may compel them to serve and impose a fine. Paragraph 2 adds that those who commit the act in item 2 of the previous paragraph and refuse to correct it must not be hired as civil servants or as staff managed under the Civil Servant Law, and must not be recruited or employed by state-owned enterprises and public institutions; for two years they may not leave the country, or go on to or return to school. They are placed on a special list of those who have failed to meet defense obligations, leading to joint enforcement actions by various agencies. Article 58 extends these same penalties to active-duty personnel who deliberately evade service or desert. Those who are discharged, expelled from the military, or held criminally liable under the law are punished under Paragraph 2 of Article 57, and those who are struck from the rolls are also fined (nationwide, in force since October 1, 2021).

A 2024 notice from 4 departments, including the Ministry of Finance, says college students who serve get 3 benefits: tuition compensation, state repayment of the national student loan used for tuition, and a tuition waiver. Repayment means the state pays off that student loan for you. The standard "is adjusted accordingly to no more than 20,000 yuan per person per year for junior-college and undergraduate students, and no more than 25,000 yuan per person per year for graduate students." The new standard applies from the autumn semester of 2024. How much is paid follows this sentence: "Apply the higher of the tuition the student actually paid and the national student loan obtained (including the principal and all interest accrued before it is fully repaid)." The next sentence is: "The part above the standard is not compensated, repaid, or waived." So the money each year is the higher of the actual tuition and the student loan, then the lower of that amount and the cap. Tuition of 5000 yuan a year is compensated at 5000 yuan. The number of years follows the years of study, not the years of service. The 2019 measures on student financial aid funds say: "Where the prescribed length of study was already completed before enlistment, that length is the period of tuition compensation or of state repayment of the national student loan; where the remaining prescribed length is completed after returning to school following discharge, that length is the period of the tuition waiver." A graduating student who enlists is compensated for the tuition of the whole program. Student status is in the Law on the Protection of Veterans. It says: "Where a service member was already admitted to an ordinary higher-education institution before enlistment, or is a student already studying at an ordinary higher-education institution, the admission qualification or student status is kept during active service. Within 2 years after discharge, enrollment or return to school is allowed, and the student may transfer to another major at the same school under the relevant state rules." The law also says: "Higher-education institutions may, under the state's overall arrangement, recruit veterans through separately listed plans, separate admissions, and similar methods." Postgraduate study is in a 2026 notice from the General Office of the Ministry of Education. The plan is called «退役大学生士兵计划» (the plan for discharged college-student soldiers). The notice says: "It is issued separately within the total national master's enrollment plan and is used only for this purpose. It may not be shifted to the regular plan or to another special plan. Admitting institutions set... the preliminary-exam score requirement themselves (generally not higher than the preliminary-exam score requirement for regular-plan candidates in the same discipline at that institution)... Under otherwise equal conditions, candidates who served longer are admitted first." Separately listed and reserved means these places are set aside and can be used only to recruit discharged college-student soldiers. In 2026, 532 ordinary higher-education institutions carry this plan (nationwide).

Article 25 of the Regulations on the Resettlement of Veterans lists six situations in which the people's government at the place of resettlement arranges a job. The text is: "(1) a non-commissioned officer who has served 12 years in active service; (2) a person who, during active service, was awarded a medal or an honorary title; (3) a person who, during active service, was awarded a third-class combat merit or a second-class merit or higher; (4) a person who, during active service, received a first-level commendation; (5) a person disabled in combat and rated at disability grade 5 to 8; (6) a child of a martyr." The regulations also say: "The people's government at the place of resettlement shall complete the task of arranging jobs for discharged non-commissioned officers and conscripts within 6 months of receiving them." The employer "shall, as required, sign with them a medium- or long-term employment contract or labor contract of not less than 3 years. Where an enterprise receives a discharged non-commissioned officer with 10 or more years of service, it shall sign an open-ended labor contract." An open-ended contract is one that does not state an end date. While waiting for a job, "a living allowance is paid month by month at the local monthly minimum wage standard." If the job is not arranged as required for a reason that is not your own, "a living allowance is paid month by month at a standard of not less than 80% of the average wage of persons in the same unit under equal conditions, until you take up the post." Situations in which a job may not be arranged include expulsion from the Communist Party of China and a criminal penalty. For the deadline for self-employment, see Article 51: "A discharged non-commissioned officer or conscript taking the self-employment path shall report to the veterans affairs department of the people's government at the place of resettlement within 30 days of the date of approval to leave active service. One who, without a proper reason, fails to report within the prescribed time and exceeds 30 days is treated as having given up the resettlement benefits." (Nationwide, in force from 1 September 2024)

The first is in the Regulations on the Placement of Veterans. They say: "For discharged non-commissioned officers and conscripts who take the self-employment path, a lump-sum discharge payment is paid according to the years of active service." Who pays: "It is specially arranged by central finance. The specific standard is set by the veterans affairs department of the State Council and the political work department of the Central Military Commission together with the finance department of the State Council... and is adjusted when appropriate." The extra percentage is in 5 tiers. A medal or an honorary title adds 25%. A first-class combat merit or a first-level commendation adds 20%. A second-class combat merit, a first-class merit, or a second-level commendation adds 15%. A third-class combat merit or a second-class merit adds 10%. A fourth-class combat merit or a third-class merit adds 5%. The regulations also say: "A veteran who has not found work in time may apply according to law to the human resources and social security department at the place of hukou (户口) for unemployment insurance benefits. Years of active service are treated as insured contribution years, except for veterans placed by retirement or as dependents." Treated as contribution years means those years count as if you had paid, even though you paid nothing. The second is in the Law on the Protection of Veterans: "A veteran's years of active service are counted as work seniority, and after discharge they accumulate with the years worked at the employer." Work seniority is the number of years of work. The years of service and the years after discharge are added on. The law also says that years of active service and the pension, medical, and unemployment contribution years before enlistment and after discharge are "combined according to law," and that "the active-service experience of discharged non-commissioned officers and conscripts is treated as grassroots work experience." The Military Insurance Law: "A service member's years of active service are treated as contribution years of employee basic medical insurance, and are combined with the contribution years of employee basic medical insurance before enlistment and after leaving active service." The third is Announcement No. 14 of 2023 from the Ministry of Finance, the State Taxation Administration, and the Ministry of Veterans Affairs. The announcement covers discharged soldiers on the self-employment path who engage in individual business: "Within 3 years (36 months, the same below), deduct in order, at a cap of 20,000 yuan per household per year, from the value-added tax, urban maintenance and construction tax, education surcharge, local education surcharge, and individual income tax actually payable that year. The cap may be raised by at most 20%." Deduction means subtracting in order from those taxes owed that year, down to the cap. It is not money paid to you. For an enterprise that hires them, "the fixed standard is 6000 yuan per person per year, and it may be raised by at most 50%." The period of implementation is January 1, 2023 through December 31, 2027. If the 3 years are not finished when the period ends, the benefit can continue until the 3 years are up (nationwide).

The notice on round 4 of the «三支一扶» plan says "the service term is 2 years." It also says: "Each province (autonomous region, municipality) shall each year set aside about 10% of the civil service recruitment plan for directed recruitment of people in the «三支一扶» plan and other projects serving the grassroots. When county and township public institutions openly recruit, they shall, according to local conditions, set aside a certain number or proportion of posts for special recruitment of people who have finished «三支一扶» service and passed the assessment... After hiring, a probation period need not be agreed." Directed recruitment and special recruitment mean these places are competed for only among people who have done a grassroots service project. Other people cannot apply. The same notice also says: "«三支一扶» participants who pass the end-of-term assessment and take the national master's entrance exam within 3 years have 10 points added to the preliminary-exam total, and are admitted first under otherwise equal conditions... Higher-vocational (junior-college) graduates who finish the term and pass the assessment may enter an adult higher-education bachelor's program starting from a junior-college credential without an exam." Entering without an exam means going on to the associate-to-bachelor program without sitting another exam. The notice also says: "People who had no work experience before joining the «三支一扶» plan, and who finish the term and pass the assessment, may within 2 years enjoy the policies for graduating students on the same terms in recruitment by government organs and by enterprises and public institutions, in starting a business, in settling hukou (户口), and in going on to further study. Years of «三支一扶» service at the grassroots count as work seniority, and the date they started work is the day they reported to the grassroots post." The central fiscal subsidy is 30,000 yuan per person per year in the western region, 24,000 yuan in the central region, and 12,000 yuan in the eastern region. The opinion of the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council says: "People who had no work experience before joining a grassroots service project, and who finish the service and pass the assessment, may within 2 years enjoy the policies for graduating college students on the same terms in recruitment by government organs and public institutions, in hiring by enterprises of every kind, in starting a business, in settling hukou, and in going on to further study." That opinion also says: "When organs at provincial level or above recruit civil servants, except for special posts, they shall, under the relevant rules, recruit only from people with 2 or more years of grassroots work experience." Another path is the western program. It is "jointly organized by the Central Committee of the Communist Youth League, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security." It recruits graduating college students or current graduate students "to do volunteer service at the western grassroots for 1 to 3 years" (nationwide).

The 2024 notice regarding the Special Post Program outlines hiring criteria: applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree or higher, preferably from a teacher-training background; for elementary schools, graduates from teacher-training colleges may also qualify. Age limit remains 30. A valid teaching certificate is mandatory. The notice further states that volunteers who participated in the “Western China Volunteer Program” and have prior teaching experience, as well as teacher-training graduates with at least six months of teaching internships, receive preferential treatment under equal conditions. Eligible veterans may also be considered for teaching roles in primary and secondary schools, with age limits adjusted based on their years of service. Compensation and official employment terms are defined accordingly: starting January 1, 2024, central government subsidies for Special Post teachers rose from 35,200 yuan per year in central regions to 38,800 yuan, and from 38,200 yuan in western regions to 41,800 yuan. Under equal conditions, these teachers are entitled to the same treatment in pay, professional title evaluations, awards, and annual assessments as regular teachers employed by local public schools. Those who complete three years of service, pass evaluations, and are willing to stay must be promptly added to the official staff list and given a work post, with all personnel and salary records transferred accordingly; their years of service and teaching experience are counted continuously, and no probationary period applies (nationwide).

For firefighters, refer to the Measures for Recruiting Firefighters into the National Comprehensive Fire and Rescue Force. Article 5 stipulates that applicants must be aged 18–22 and hold at least a high school diploma. Article 6 further allows candidates with an associate degree or higher, discharged soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army and the Armed Police, and government full-time firefighters and government full-time forestry fire crew with at least 2 years of real firefighting and rescue experience to apply up to age 24; for special professionals urgently needed in fire and rescue work, the age may be relaxed further with approval from the Ministry of Emergency Management, in principle to no more than 28. Article 7 specifies that recruitment occurs primarily among permanent residents of the province, though candidates from other provinces may also be considered. Article 9 outlines the full procedure: publicity, registration, eligibility checks, medical exams, political screening, physical fitness and job-adaptability tests, psychological tests and interviews, public announcements, and final hiring. Regarding military civilian roles, the Regulations on Civilian Personnel in the Chinese People’s Liberation Army states in Article 18 that recruitment combines open examinations, direct hiring, and targeted recruitment efforts. Article 9 lists basic criteria: applicants must be at least 18 years old, meet political standards, and possess required education, expertise, and competence. Article 19 sets the maximum age limit at 35 for entry-level positions. The regulations also state that civilian posts should give priority to eligible veterans (nationwide).

The self-study exam is in the Interim Regulations on Higher Education Self-Study Examinations. Article 3: "Citizens of the People's Republic of China may take the higher education self-study examination under these regulations, without restriction of sex, age, ethnicity, race, or level of education already received." Article 20: "Current students of full-time schools of every type and level may not register." Article 25 states 3 conditions for the diploma: pass every course, complete the thesis or the practical task, and pass the assessment of moral character. Meet all of them and you may receive the diploma. This article also says: "The state recognizes the education of a person who obtains a junior-college (foundation) or bachelor's diploma." Article 32 states the wage treatment of a person who obtains the diploma: "A person who was not already employed, once hired, is the same as a graduate of the same kind from an ordinary higher-education institution." Article 21 of the Higher Education Law: "The state implements the higher education self-study examination system. A person who passes the examination is issued the corresponding diploma or another academic certificate." The adult college entrance exam is in the 2025 Measures for National Admissions to Adult Higher-Education Institutions. The people who may apply are "employed people and other members of society, other than current students of higher and secondary schools of every kind whose education the state recognizes." "A candidate for a high-school-to-bachelor or high-school-to-junior-college program shall have graduated from a senior secondary school or have an equivalent education. A candidate for an associate-to-bachelor program must already hold... a junior-college diploma, a bachelor's completion certificate, or a higher certificate." "The shortest full-time study is 4 years for high-school-to-bachelor, and 2 years for high-school-to-junior-college and for associate-to-bachelor. The shortest non-full-time study is 5 years for high-school-to-bachelor, and 2.5 years for high-school-to-junior-college and for associate-to-bachelor." Full-time means leaving work and studying at school all day. Non-full-time means not leaving work, and studying while you work. The Open University is in the Opinion of the Ministry of Education on Running Open Universities Well. It says: "An open university admits by registration. A student who finishes a course and earns the corresponding credits receives a course certificate. A student who earns the required credits and meets the related requirements receives the corresponding diploma or non-diploma certificate. A student who meets the conditions for a degree shall be awarded the corresponding degree" (nationwide). Whether a diploma is real is in the Ministry of Education Measures for Electronic Registration of Student Status and Academic Credentials in Higher Education. Article 2 states that a self-study exam diploma must also be registered electronically. Article 5: Xuexin («学信网») "is the only website for querying the electronically registered student status and academic credentials of higher-education students." Article 19: after the credential is registered and online query is provided, "the school may not change the content of the certificate or the registration information." The red line for admissions publicity is a 2021 notice from the Ministry of Education and 4 other departments. Advertising for continuing education toward a diploma "may not contain false or illegal content such as 'no need to study' or 'no need to attend class.'" It also "may not contain a guaranteed promise, explicit or implied, about the educational result, such as 'get the certificate fast,' 'no exam, guaranteed pass,' or 'a refund if you do not pass.'" Institutions such as specialized colleges and research colleges cannot issue diplomas, and advertising may not mix them up with higher-education institutions that can.

These provisions stem from the “Guiding Opinions on Protecting the Labor Rights and Interests of Workers in New Forms of Employment.” It states: “All regions must lift household registration restrictions so flexible workers can enroll in basic pension and medical insurance at their place of work; for the few super-large cities where this is hard to achieve in one step, they should, in light of local conditions, actively create conditions and open up gradually. Organize flexible workers who have not joined employee basic pension and employee basic medical insurance to join urban and rural resident basic pension and urban and rural resident basic medical insurance as required, so that everyone who should be insured is insured. Urge enterprises to join social insurance according to law. Enterprises should guide and support workers in new forms of employment who do not fully meet the conditions for a labor relationship to join the matching social insurance according to their own situation.” The same document sorts employment into 3 kinds: “Where the conditions for a labor relationship are met, the enterprise shall sign a labor contract with the worker according to law. Where the conditions are not fully met but the enterprise manages the worker’s labor... guide the enterprise and the worker to sign a written agreement... Where a person relies on a platform to run a business independently, or works as a freelancer, and the like, the rights and duties of both sides are governed by civil law.” (Nationwide, from 2021)

The coverage is governed by the “Interim Measures for Occupational Injury Insurance for Workers in New Forms of Employment.” Article 2 states: “Platform enterprises shall enroll in occupational injury insurance for new-form workers as required by these measures… ensuring coverage for every order and every worker who registers via the platform and receives compensation for services such as ride-hailing, delivery, and local freight. For workers to whom the Regulations on Work Injury Insurance apply, the enterprise shall enroll them in work injury insurance according to law, and these measures do not apply.” Article 9 specifies premium rates during the trial phase: 0.01 yuan per order for ride-hailing, 0.07 yuan and 0.25 yuan per order for delivery, and 0.18 yuan per order for local freight. Starting July 1, 2025, building on the first 7 provinces and 7 platform enterprises in the pilot, it adds 10 provinces: Tianjin, Hebei, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Shandong, Hubei, Guangxi, and Ningxia. In 2026 it is to promote the pilot in all 31 provinces and the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and to bring platform enterprises in the ride-hailing, instant delivery, and local freight industries into the pilot overall (pilot, expanding year by year).

Government-funded teacher-training students are in the Implementation Measures for Government-Funded Education of Teacher-Training Students on a Bachelor's-to-Master's Track at Normal Universities Directly under the Ministry of Education (2024; the 2018 measures were repealed at the same time). Article 2: central finance bears the student's tuition and housing during school and gives a living stipend. Article 3: training is mainly for places at prefecture (city, autonomous prefecture, league) level and below, outside provincial capitals, in the central and western regions. It also says placement "may not be directed to a municipality directly under the central government, a city specifically designated in the state plan, or the main urban area of a provincial capital (except the 5 autonomous regions, provinces on a land border, Hainan, Guizhou, and Qinghai)." Article 9: after graduation, generally return to teach in a primary or secondary school in the directed prefecture (city, autonomous prefecture, league) of the source province, and "promise to work in primary and secondary education for 6 years or more." A person assigned to an urban school "shall teach and serve for at least 1 year in a rural compulsory-education school." Article 13: a person who does not perform, or whose performed term falls short, bears liability under the agreement. A consequence is that "the breach is entered in the credit record, shared in time with the national credit-information sharing platform, and the materials on the breach are placed in the person's personnel file." Another sentence is: "Before the service task is completed, the person may not teach outside the directed prefecture (city, autonomous prefecture, league), and may not be recruited as other public personnel. After the service task is completed, the related credit is restored." Before the agreed service period is finished, other public posts cannot be applied for. After it is finished, the credit record is restored. Article 6: if an assessment after admission finds the person unsuitable to teach, within 1 year of enrollment the government-funded education expenses already received are returned, and the person is transferred to a non-teacher-training major. Article 14: if the master-of-education degree certificate and the teacher qualification certificate are not obtained within the prescribed length of study, it is treated as a breach: the fees are returned and liquidated damages are paid. Article 21: localities, within the existing total of public-institution posts, provide the posts needed for government-funded teacher-training graduates to teach in primary and secondary schools. Article 12 says the prefecture organizes the employing schools for a special recruitment of government-funded teacher-training students, and "by each side choosing the other, and by similar methods, a teaching school and a post are actually assigned to each graduating government-funded teacher-training student." Order-based tuition-free medical students directed to rural posts are in another notice. After admission, and before receiving the admission notice, an agreement must be signed with the training school and with the county health department and the human resources and social security department of the place of directed employment. The agreement must "promise to serve for 6 years after graduation at the directed rural primary-level medical institution." Performing the contract means working the full term at the assigned place under the agreement. On posts, the notice says the provincial health department "shall actively seek support from the local staffing department and, within the local total of posts, according to the prescribed procedure, properly resolve employment and placement of the targeted medical graduates." Those who report for work in the central and western regions are specially recruited by the county, which "completes the formal hiring procedures of a public-institution staff member." After reporting for work under the agreement, the graduate must take 3 years of standardized residency training in general practice, called residency training for short. Residency training is the stage after graduation in which you keep training in a hospital to a uniform standard. During training the original personnel relationship and wage relationship do not change. A breach record goes into the personal personnel file, and it is a basis for the integrity assessment in open recruitment by medical institutions and other administrative and public institutions, in recruitment for standardized residency training, and in postgraduate admission. A person who breaches in bad faith is publicized nationwide on the Credit China website («信用中国») and is subject to joint punishment for breach of trust. Years of training that are a breach are not counted in the service period. If the fees and liquidated damages are not returned under the agreement, the county health department recovers them through legal channels (nationwide).

Article 5 of the Regulations on the Administration of Foreign Labor Cooperation (《对外劳务合作管理条例》): engaging in foreign labor cooperation requires approval from the commerce department at provincial level or at the level of a city divided into districts, which grants the business qualification. That qualification is the foreign labor cooperation business qualification certificate, and without it no one may organize people to work abroad. Article 7: the list of qualification certificates is reported to the commerce department of the State Council and notified to Chinese embassies and consulates abroad. The article also says "without obtaining the foreign labor cooperation business qualification certificate according to law and completing registration, one may not engage in foreign labor cooperation." Article 8: "No unit or individual may organize workers to work abroad in the name of business, tourism, study, or the like." Article 9: within 5 working days of the date of registration, the enterprise shall deposit, at a designated bank, a "foreign labor cooperation risk reserve fund of not less than 3 million yuan", and the list of those that have deposited is made public. Article 10: the fund is used to pay service fees that must be refunded, labor remuneration, and compensation by law that the enterprise refuses or is unable to bear. It is also used for "the costs of workers returning home or receiving emergency aid when an emergency occurs." Article 11: workers may not be organized to go abroad for work connected with gambling or pornographic activity. Article 12: no one may be organized to go abroad without training being arranged. Article 13: personal accident insurance must be bought for workers for the period of work abroad. Articles 21 and 23: written contracts must be signed separately with the foreign employer and with the worker, and no one may be organized to go abroad without them. Article 25: "no deposit may be collected from workers under any name, and workers may not be required to provide property security." Article 26: within 10 working days of signing, the contract is filed with the commerce department. Article 29: where the worker's actual rights do not match the contract, the enterprise shall help claim compensation; where the worker has not received due compensation, the worker has the right to require the enterprise to bear liability for compensation. Article 31: where the security situation in the country or region concerned cannot guarantee personal safety, the enterprise may not organize workers to go there. Article 37: the commerce department keeps a bad-credit record and announcement system. The penalties follow in later articles. Article 39: those with no qualification to engage in foreign labor cooperation are investigated, punished, and shut down, and criminal liability is pursued if a crime is constituted. Article 40: organizing people to go abroad in the name of business, tourism, or study, lending out the qualification, or organizing work connected with gambling or pornography leads to revocation of the business qualification certificate. Article 43: organizing people to go abroad without signing a contract, or by hiding information or giving false information, is fined not less than 100,000 and not more than 200,000 yuan, and the person mainly in charge is fined not less than 20,000 and not more than 50,000 yuan (nationwide)

Whether this income qualifies as domestic earnings is determined by Article 3 of the Implementing Regulations of the Individual Income Tax Law (Decree No. 707 issued by the State Council, effective January 1, 2019). It states: “Unless otherwise stipulated by financial or tax authorities under the State Council, the following types of earnings are regarded as originating in China, regardless of where payment is made: (1) earnings derived from providing services within China through employment, engagement, or contractual obligations.” Article 6 of the same regulations defines two relevant tax categories. Wages and salaries are defined as “any compensation, bonuses, year-end incentives, labor dividends, allowances, subsidies, and other earnings related to employment or engagement.” Meanwhile, “labor remuneration” refers to “any income earned through personal services such as design, decoration, installation, drafting, laboratory testing, testing, medical work, legal services, accounting, consulting, teaching, translation, editing, calligraphy and painting, sculpture, film and television, audio recording, video recording, performance, advertising, exhibitions, technical services, referral services, brokerage, agency work, and other services.” According to Article 6 of the Individual Income Tax Law, the taxable base for residents is calculated by subtracting 60,000 RMB, mandatory deductions, additional allowances, and other legally permitted deductions from total annual earnings. For labor remuneration, author’s remuneration, and royalties, a 20% expense is deducted and the remainder is the income amount. That sentence lists only these 3, and wages and salaries are not among them. So wages and salaries count in full toward the income amount, and the 2 categories give different tax. Article 9 clarifies that taxpayers are responsible for paying income tax, while employers or payers serve as withholding agents. Article 10 specifies that taxpayers must file returns under several circumstances, including when no withholding agent exists or when foreign earnings are received. Article 11: where annual reconciliation is needed, it must be completed between March 1 and June 30 of the year after the income was received. Regarding currency inflows, Article 9 of the Administrative Measures on Personal Foreign Exchange (issued by the People’s Bank of China, Decree No. 3 of 2006, effective February 1, 2007) applies annual total-amount management to individual foreign exchange settlement and purchase. Within the annual total, individuals handle it at a bank with valid identification; above it, current-account items need valid identification and related proof of the transaction amount. Article 7 further prohibits banks and individuals from circumventing these limits through split transactions or falsified documents. Article 2 of the detailed implementation rules (汇发〔2007〕1号) sets the annual total at the equivalent of USD 50,000 per person per year. Article 10 says that non-business settlement above the annual total needs valid identification and, for employee compensation, the employment contract and proof of income.

The conditions for an individual application are in Article 6 of the Measures for the Administration of Special Funds for Inclusive Finance Development («财金» [2023] No. 75). The first condition is belonging to a priority employment group. The document lists registered urban unemployed people, people with difficulty finding work (including people with disabilities), veterans, and people who have completed a prison sentence. It also lists college graduates (including college-graduate village officials and students who have returned from study abroad), and workers and unemployed people from enterprises cutting overcapacity. It also lists migrant workers returning home to start a business, online merchants, people who have left poverty, and rural residents starting a business on their own. The second condition is having no other loan in your name: "Apart from student loans, small credit for people who have left poverty, housing loans, car loans, and small consumer loans of 50,000 yuan or less (including credit-card spending), when the applicant submits the application for a startup guarantee loan, the applicant and the applicant's spouse have no other loan." Article 9: "For a startup guarantee loan that meets the conditions, the finance department gives a fiscal interest subsidy of 50% of the actual interest rate on the loan. For a startup guarantee loan that is extended or overdue, the finance department in principle gives no interest subsidy." The subsidy means public finance pays half the interest for you. An extension is pushing the date back after it falls due. Overdue is failing to repay on time. In both of those cases, public finance no longer pays. Article 10: for an individual startup guarantee loan of 100,000 yuan or less that is included, counter-guarantee is in principle cancelled. You do not have to find someone else, or put up property, as security for the guarantee agency. Article 11: an individual startup guarantee loan included in the award-and-subsidy support "does not exceed 300,000 yuan, and the loan term does not exceed 3 years." A partnership may be raised appropriately, up to 110% of the sum of the individual caps. The interest-rate cap on loans supported by the award-and-subsidy program is in tiers: LPR+50 BPs in the eastern region, LPR+150 BPs in the central and western regions, and LPR+250 BPs in areas that have left poverty. LPR is the loan prime rate quoted by banks. BPs are the unit used to measure the interest rate. The more that is added, the higher the interest. A person who "repays actively, is strong at bringing other people into work, and has a good business project" may apply again when the term ends, up to 3 times in total. Article 8: the applicant first applies to the local human resources and social security department for an eligibility review, then submits the application to the guarantee agency and the handling bank. Article 12: with the agreement of the provincial people's government, localities may widen the scope of support, raise the cap, and raise the subsidy ratio (nationwide).

The 2027 national civil service recruitment announcement says that, for central organs, "organs directly under them at city (prefecture) level and below mainly recruit fresh college graduates." Question 3 of that year's application guide answers whether a past graduate counts as a fresh graduate. The original text is: "A graduate of an ordinary higher-education institution under the unified national admissions plan who, on leaving school and during the job-seeking period (the state sets the job-seeking period at 2 years), has not been placed in a work unit, and whose hukou, file, and organizational affiliation are still kept at the original school, or kept at graduate-employment authorities at each level (graduate employment guidance and service centers), talent-exchange service agencies at each level, and public employment service agencies at each level, may be treated as a fresh college graduate." The job-seeking period is the 2 years after graduation spent looking for work. So the national exam requires both things at once: no work unit placed during the 2 years, and the file, hukou, and organizational affiliation not transferred to an employer. Each province sets its own exam. Fujian's 2023 notice says: "For that year's fresh graduates, signing an employment agreement or a labor contract, or paying social insurance, does not affect recognition as a fresh graduate; a graduate of the previous year who has work experience and a social insurance payment record may apply for a fresh-graduate post." This covers Fujian's civil service, public institutions, state-owned enterprises, and central-enterprise offices in Fujian. Chongqing's 2025 notice writes the exams separately. For Chongqing's civil service exam, it copies the national-exam sentence above. For Chongqing's public institutions and state-owned enterprises, as long as within 2 years you have not been hired into a staffed post, "signing an employment contract (agreement), work experience, and payment of social insurance do not affect the application" (nationwide, and each province sets its own).