Living in China

Peanuts that get damp and moldy grow aflatoxin, a clearly established carcinogen that mainly harms the liver. After Guangzhou brought small workshops under control, residents who regularly used home-pressed oil had about a third fewer abnormal liver function results. In Guangxi, pregnant women who ate home-pressed peanut oil had about a 90% higher risk of a low-birth-weight baby and about an 80% higher risk of preterm birth.

These kinds of people can usually get money back: those who worked only a few months in the year, those who changed jobs mid-year, and those who did not fill in deductions such as children's education, mortgage, rent or supporting parents. It takes a dozen minutes or so on your phone. If your comprehensive income for the year is under 120,000 CNY (12万), or the tax you would owe is under 400 CNY, you can skip it.

The housing provident fund is not only for buying a home. The new regulations list 9 situations in which you can withdraw, and renting, renovating the home you live in, and paying property management fees are all included. After you submit an application, the housing provident fund center (公积金中心) must tell you within 3 days whether the withdrawal is approved.

When a child aged 8 or older spends money, if the amount is clearly out of proportion to the child's age and understanding, and the parents neither agree nor accept the charge, the transaction is invalid and you can ask for a refund. A child under 8 cannot decide on spending money alone in the first place. If the parents keep silent, the law treats it as not accepting the charge.

In the second batch of volume-based procurement, prices fell 53% on average, and by as much as 93% for the biggest cut. As of April 2026, 11 batches have been done, covering 490 drugs. When a doctor prescribes or you buy medicine, ask one more question: "Is there a volume-based procurement one, a generic-name one?" The ingredients are the same, and you can spend much less.

Set up the linking once, and the money in your employee medical insurance (职工医保) personal account can be used for your spouse's, parents' and children's care and medicine. If you don't, that money can only be used by you, and it just sits in the account.

For every 1 CNY you put in, the tax you save is "your tax rate minus 3%." Putting in the full 12000 CNY in a year saves 840 CNY at a 10% rate, 2040 CNY at 20% and 3240 CNY at 30%. For someone at only a 3% rate, the tax saved is paid back when withdrawing, so the money is locked up until retirement for nothing. Someone who pays no income tax still pays 3% when withdrawing, a net loss.

A merchant that takes your prepayment must sign a written contract with you that states clearly how to get a refund. If the merchant's business runs into serious trouble, it should stop taking money, and if it is going to close or move it must tell you in advance. At that point you can ask it to keep providing the service, or to refund the unspent balance to you. Merchants who violate these rules are fined.

When you are at fault, compulsory traffic insurance pays at most three items: 180,000 (18万) CNY for death and disability, 18,000 (1.8万) CNY for medical expenses, and 2000 CNY for property damage. The three are counted separately and cannot be moved from one to another. Compensation for injuring someone easily exceeds these limits, and the excess is paid from your own family's pocket, so buy enough commercial third-party liability insurance.

If a merchant cheats you, you can claim three times the price you paid, and a price under 500 CNY is counted as 500 CNY. A platform that knows a seller is infringing and does nothing must pay along with the seller. A deposit can be at most 20% of the contract amount. If you breach, you lose the deposit, and if the seller breaches, it must return double. Fake orders and fake reviews in a live stream carry liability, and big-data price discrimination against existing customers is expressly banned.

When something you bought in a live stream goes wrong, the most common dead end is that you can't find who to sue. At that point you can directly ask the platform for the information of the live room's operator and the host, and the related business records. The platform must provide them.

If you buy expired or spoiled food, the item itself, its packaging and the receipt are your evidence, so don't throw them away in a hurry. You can claim compensation of ten times the price paid or three times your loss, and an amount under 1000 CNY is counted as 1000 CNY. Whether to go after the seller or the manufacturer is your choice, and whichever one you go after must pay first and may not push it onto the other.

In 2024, the state spot-checked 25250 batches of products, and 14.3% failed. E-commerce channels were worse: of 7297 batches checked, 23.5% failed, against 15.1% for physical stores. Before buying a big-ticket item, spend a few minutes checking the spot-check notices, and check whether the 3C certificate (China Compulsory Certification, 3C) is real. Where an energy-efficiency label is required, it must not be missing.

Certificates can be forged, so what you check is the body that issued the certificate. A testing body must be qualified to issue reports to the public, and the report must carry the CMA mark. The issuing authority publishes the list of bodies on its website, and you can check for yourself whether this one is on it. In cases investigated by the authorities, some "national inspection certificates" (国检证书) that came with the goods had been made by someone the seller found.

The law requires an ingredient list only on prepackaged food, not on bulk food. A bulk counter only has to show the name, production date, shelf life and who produced it. So "no additives listed" does not mean "none added," only that the law doesn't require listing them. If you care, buy the prepackaged version, where the ingredient list and additive names are printed on it.

From May 2026, overseas brokers such as Tiger Brokers (老虎), Futu (富途) and Longbridge (长桥) may no longer open accounts for people in mainland China. For accounts already open, for two years they can only sell and move money out, and cannot buy more. The foreign exchange quota also may not be used to buy overseas stocks, and violators cannot use the quota that year or for the 2 years after. To buy overseas assets, go through a QDII fund or Stock Connect to Hong Kong.

Personal insurance of one year or more has a cooling-off period. For policies bought at a bank, it is 15 days after you receive the policy, and canceling in that period costs at most a 10 CNY processing fee. If you cancel after the cooling-off period, you get back only the cash value stated in the policy, often less than you paid. When the insurer calls to ask whether you understood, don't say you understood if you didn't.

Online ads shouting "full refund, no fee unless it succeeds" are mostly illegal agent cancelers. They take 30% to 50% of the refunded money, and also ask for your ID card, bank card and verification codes. Once the policy is canceled, the coverage is gone too. If you feel misled, first go to the insurer's customer service, and if you can't reach agreement call 12378, free of charge throughout.

If no beneficiary is named, or the beneficiary has died first, the insurance payout counts as part of the estate and is first used to pay the debts the deceased owed. If the beneficiary is written as "wife so-and-so" and they later divorced, it counts as none named when the event happens. Family members need to know the policy exists: for life insurance you must claim within 5 years of learning of the event, and for other insurance within 2 years.

China does not recognize virtual currency as money, and a personal trade to buy coins can be ruled invalid, so a loss is yours alone. One person bought Tether from another and paid about 448,000 (44.8万) CNY, then the platform could not process withdrawals, and the lawsuit to get the money back was dismissed by the court. Having coins stolen is a different matter, and the thief is still convicted of theft.

If you have no employer and pay into employee pension insurance yourself, the best approach is to pay at the lowest tier and build up the full number of years. The bulk of what you receive follows the average wage of the place in the year you retire. Converted at that year's wage level, paying at the lowest tier for 15 years and collecting from age 60, you break even after about 10 years of collecting, and the extra paid at higher tiers takes about 17 years of collecting. It is worth paying in, but it is not a sure profit.

If a major component such as the engine or transmission breaks in a new car's first 7 days, you can demand a replacement car or a refund outright. Within the first 60 days or 3000 km, failure of the brakes or steering, a cracked body, an oil leak or a battery fire also qualifies for a replacement or refund. Within the first two years, if the same fault has been repaired many times and still isn't fixed, you can also get a replacement or refund, but you pay a usage compensation fee based on the mileage driven.

If you buy a used car from a dealer and the dealer knowingly hid its real condition, such as an accident or flood damage, you can return the car and also claim compensation of three times the price of the car. But you get the triple compensation only if you can prove the dealer hid it on purpose. If the dealer says it didn't know and the court accepts that, you get only the price back plus interest. Triple compensation does not apply to a car bought from an individual.

If the store says arranging a loan costs an extra “financial service fee,” the rules do not allow dealers to charge it. You can go to another provider or arrange the insurance, loan and plate registration yourself; the store cannot force you to do them with it, and cannot charge anything beyond the listed price. Before taking out a loan, have the other side write down the annualized rate and all the fees, and compare.

If you and your employer have together paid in for a full 1 year, and you did not quit of your own accord, you can collect benefits once you have registered as unemployed. With 1 year but under 5 years of payments, you get up to 12 months. With 5 years but under 10, up to 18 months. With 10 years or more, up to 24 months. While you are collecting, unemployment insurance pays your employee medical insurance (职工医保) premiums for you.

Neither route costs anything. First call 12333 (the labor and social security hotline) or go to the labor inspection office (劳动监察) of the human resources and social security bureau (人社局) to file a complaint. Once the case is accepted, the inspection must be finished within 60 working days, and the company can be ordered to pay by a deadline; if it does not, it owes an extra 50% to 100% in compensation. If that fails, apply for labor arbitration (劳动仲裁), which must close the case within 45 days. But a closed case is not the same as money in your hand: if the company has no assets or the boss has run off, you may win and still not get paid.

You can apply for free legal aid for unpaid wages, support payments from family members, social insurance or dibao (低保, minimum living allowance) benefits, and losses suffered when you acted bravely to help others. Call 12348 (the legal aid hotline) or go to your local legal aid center (法律援助中心). You no longer have to go back to your hometown to get proof of financial hardship; an honest statement from you is enough. A lawyer is always assigned to defendants who may face the death penalty and to defendants who are blind, deaf, mute or under 18.

A rescue station gives you meals and a place to sleep, takes you to a hospital if you are sick, and helps you contact your family. If you have no money to get home, it gives you a ticket. You can generally stay no more than 10 days. You come and go of your own free will; it is not detention, and it does not hand out cash. The ticket is issued to the place where your household registration (户籍) is or where you live, so decide before you go where you want to end up.

Public bodies such as employment service centers (就业服务中心) and human resources markets (人力资源市场) charge nothing for job referrals, career guidance, policy advice, or unemployment and employment registration. The law expressly forbids them from making money from these services. Registering and posting information at a day-labor market is also free. While you are there, do your unemployment registration (失业登记) too: you need it to collect unemployment benefits and to be recognized as a person with employment difficulties (就业困难人员).

If something sudden happens to your family, such as a fire, a car accident or a family member falling seriously ill, and your basic living is overwhelmed for the moment, you can apply for temporary assistance at your township government (乡镇政府) or subdistrict office (街道办). You do not have to be on dibao (低保, minimum living allowance) already. It is mostly a one-time payment, and the amount varies a great deal from place to place.

Divide your household's total income by the number of people. If the result is below the local dibao line and your family's property also meets the rules, you can apply. At the end of 2024, the national average dibao line was 798.1 CNY per person per month in cities and 593.9 CNY in the countryside. What you are paid once approved is the dibao line minus the monthly income of each person in the household. If you own a home, a car or savings, or if your children are able to support you, you may not be approved.

Disabled people in dibao (低保, minimum living allowance) households can receive a living subsidy. Those with a Level 1 or Level 2 disability who also need long-term care can receive a nursing subsidy. You can get both at the same time. Each province sets its own amounts and they differ a lot, so ask your subdistrict office (街道) for the specifics. Bring your second-generation disability certificate (第二代残疾人证) and apply once at the subdistrict office or township government (乡镇).

An individual pays from 400 CNY a year, and the government adds a subsidy of about 700 CNY per person. People in extreme hardship (特困人员) have the full amount paid for them, and dibao (低保, minimum living allowance) recipients get a fixed amount of help. A lapse has a cost: if you missed the annual enrollment period or did not pay continuously, then after you pay up there is a 3-month stretch in which your medical bills are not reimbursed, and as a rule each additional 1 year of lapse adds 1 more month.

The order is fixed. Before being admitted to a hospital in another province, file first through the official account called National Healthcare Security Administration (国家医保局), and you can settle directly when you are discharged without paying the full amount up front. If you still cannot afford what is left after reimbursement, apply for medical assistance (医疗救助) at your township government or subdistrict office. If you are employed, you have a medical treatment period (医疗期) of 3 to 24 months depending on how long you have worked, and during it the company cannot dismiss you. Stay away from online loans and private high-interest loans.

A replacement card is issued within 60 days from the day you hand in the form. If you need ID urgently, apply on the spot for a temporary ID card (临时身份证), which is issued within 3 days and is valid for 3 months. Without an ID card you cannot look for work, find lodging, open an account or collect subsidies. It is the prerequisite for every procedure.

Once you are recognized, you can get a subsidy if you pay your own social insurance: as a rule no more than two-thirds of what you actually pay, for up to 3 years. If you are hired by an employer or placed in a public-benefit job, the employer's share of social insurance is also subsidized. Wages in public-benefit jobs follow the local minimum wage. These jobs do not pay much, but they come with social insurance and suit a transition period. The social insurance subsidy is mostly paid back after you pay, so you have to front the money first.

You should not have to pay for training yourself. If you take part in training and obtain the required certificate, you get a vocational training subsidy (职业培训补贴), and one person can receive it at most 3 times. College graduates who have not found work within two years of graduating, and unemployed young people aged 16 to 24, can join an employment internship (就业见习) and receive basic living expenses during it. Before signing up for a class, check the “vocational training subsidy catalog” (职业培训补贴目录) on your local human resources and social security bureau (人社局) website, and don't pay for a class out of your own pocket.

You need to meet all three conditions: you have no home locally, or your living space is below the standard; your income and property are below the standard; and, if you are a migrant worker, you have held stable local employment for the required number of years. The waiting period is published locally. This is help for later and will not solve something urgent, but waiting in line costs nothing, and the earlier you sign up the sooner your turn comes.

A pension is calculated on cumulative years, not continuous years. A gap does not reset the count to zero, and once you reach retirement age with 15 cumulative years you can collect a monthly pension. If you have paid employee medical insurance (职工医保) for enough years, you do not have to pay after retirement; the required number of years differs from place to place, so call 12393 and ask the place where you are insured. What a gap really affects is eligibility that requires continuous payment, such as buying a home, getting local household registration, or earning points.

People released after serving a sentence may not be discriminated against in employment, schooling or social insurance, and the government helps those in hardship find a place to settle. If you were under 18 when you committed the crime and were sentenced to 5 years or less, the record is sealed and you do not have to report it when joining the army or looking for work. The failure-to-pay list (失信名单) lasts 2 years, and once the money is paid back the court must remove your name within 3 working days. An adult's criminal record is not sealed, and you must report it honestly when joining the army or applying for a job.

This kind of insurance covers the part you still have to pay after basic medical insurance has reimbursed its share, and also the loss from time off work. Before you buy, look for the words “guaranteed renewable” (保证续保): without them, the policy may be discontinued or get more expensive next year. Be honest about your health condition, because hiding something can get a claim denied. Pay into basic medical insurance first, then consider this.

At a workshop or shop with no business license, you can still file a labor inspection complaint or apply for labor arbitration over unpaid wages, and the owner can be pursued personally. If a labor contractor subcontracted work on a construction site and wages are owed, the general contractor or the project owner pays. Only private work for a household or an individual, such as being a nanny, does not count as a labor dispute, and there you sue in court.

If you flee, you are presumed to be fully at fault for the accident. Your driver's license is revoked and you can never apply for one again. There is also a more practical side: collision insurance (车损险) and third-party liability insurance (三者险) pay nothing when the driver flees, so compensation of several hundred thousand CNY (几十万) falls entirely on you. Staying to help and to call the police costs an hour or two at most.

The short stretch right after the money leaves your account is the only window. During this time the police can issue an emergency payment stop and a quick freeze, and the bank must cooperate. Once the money has been moved on through layer after layer of accounts and split up, it is almost impossible to get back. So call 110 or 96110 (the national anti-fraud warning hotline) first, and don't start looking into it or asking around on your own. When 96110 calls you, it is the police trying to talk you out of a transfer, so pick up.

You can ask for a lawyer from the first time you are called in for questioning. When the lawyer asks to see you, the detention center (看守所) must arrange it within 48 hours at the latest, and the conversation is not monitored. You may decline to answer questions unrelated to the case.

Turning yourself in (自首) can cut a sentence by up to 40%, and for a lighter offense you may not be punished at all. Telling the truth only after the authorities come to you can still cut it by up to 20%. Running away or flatly denying everything gets you none of this. Hoping to hide for a few years until the case expires does not work either: once a case has been filed, the time you spend in hiding does not count toward the limitation period.

Renting, lending or selling your bank card, SIM card or payment account to someone else is illegal in itself. The fine is 1 to 10 times the illegal gains, up to 200,000 CNY if there are no gains, and 15 days of detention (拘留) in serious cases. You will also be put on your credit record and have your account functions restricted. If you knew the other side was using it for crime and still helped collect and move money, that is the crime of aiding information network criminal activity (帮信罪), with a sentence of up to 3 years.

You can check your own credit report online for free twice a year, and it takes about ten minutes. Use the website of the People's Bank of China Credit Reference Center (人民银行征信中心) or your mobile banking app, and not a third-party "check your credit" app, because those apps are collecting your information. A negative record stays for 5 years from the day the matter ended, and should be deleted after that. If you disagree with something, you can file an objection, and you must get a written answer within 20 days.

When someone is attacking you or another person and you act to stop it and injure him, you bear no criminal liability. If the person is committing violent assault, murder, robbery, rape or kidnapping, injuring or killing him is not counted as excessive either. But you may hit only the person who is attacking, and you stop when he stops. Even if in the end the case is found to be on your side, you may first be put under investigation and held for a few days.

Taking the legal route, the worst result is that you don't get the money back. Taking revenge, the result is still that you don't get the money back, and you also pay with your own life. In the Wuxi case, Xu Moujin (徐某金) did not get his graduation certificate and was unhappy with his internship pay; he attacked people with a knife, killing 8 and injuring 17, and was sentenced to death and executed. For unpaid wages, go through complaints and arbitration: in 2024 this route recovered 8,650,000,000 (86.5亿) CNY for 654,000 (65.4万) people nationwide.

Ramming a crowd with a vehicle or attacking people in a public place is convicted as the crime of endangering public safety by dangerous means (以危险方法危害公共安全罪). Even if no one is hurt, the sentence starts at 3 years. If someone dies, it is 10 years or more, life imprisonment or death. In the Zhuhai case, Fan Weiqiu (樊维秋), unhappy with the division of property in his divorce, drove into a crowd exercising at a sports center, killing 35 and injuring 43, and was sentenced to death and executed.

When a family member says "no one will have it easy" or "I'll take the child with me," close relatives (近亲属) can take him straight to a hospital, and the hospital may not refuse to examine him. If he has already used violence, or something is about to happen, hospitalization does not need his own consent. If you can't tell whether it is just talk or real, call 12356 (China's national mental-health hotline) and ask first, or call 110 and have the police come. Covering for him is not helping him.

The limitation period for civil lawsuits (民事诉讼时效) is 3 years, counted from the day you learn your rights were harmed. After it runs out, the court will not raise it on its own, but the other side only has to say "it's past the limitation period" in court, and the money is still owed but you can't get it back. A message demanding payment that leaves a trace can restart the 3 years from the beginning. Labor disputes are a separate system, with an arbitration limitation period of 1 year.

Putting a house under a company's name or transferring money to relatives and friends is exactly the situation written into the crime of refusing to carry out a court judgment or order (拒执罪), with a sentence of up to 3 years, and 3 to 7 years in especially serious cases. The relatives, friends and companies that helped hide or transfer the assets are treated as accomplices, and the money is recovered anyway. Refusing to report assets or reporting falsely can bring an individual a fine of up to 100,000 CNY and 15 days of detention (拘留). Truly having no money is not this crime.

First work out whether you are under a consumption restriction (限制消费) or on the dishonest-debtor list (失信名单). They are two different things. Only six situations allow someone to be put on the dishonest-debtor list, and the term is 2 years. In seven situations, such as having already fully performed the obligation, the court should remove the entry within 3 working days. The high-consumption restriction (限高) bans nine categories of spending, and riding a G-class high-speed train is included. If something is necessary for living or for business, you can apply case by case.

Once the money is handed over, in principle you can't get it back. A gift can be freely revoked only before it has been transferred into the other person's name. After the transfer is complete, it can be revoked only in three situations: the other person seriously harms you or your close relatives, fails to support you when obliged to, or fails to perform an agreed obligation. So before a large transfer, think clearly about whether it is a loan or a gift.

Demanding money or property under the pretext of marriage is prohibited by law, and the courts support its return. You can demand the return if the marriage was never registered, if it was registered but the couple truly never lived together, or if the bride price was paid before marriage and left the paying side in financial hardship. If the marriage was registered and the couple lived together, it is generally not returned. So pay the bride price, the three gold items (三金) and the "change of address" money (改口费) by transfer with the purpose noted, and whoever gave the money keeps the evidence, men and women alike.

Property you owned before marriage is your own, and does not turn into shared property because the marriage has lasted many years. A couple can agree in writing that property from before and after the marriage belongs to each of them separately. One point to watch: if you agreed to add the other person's name to a home, you can still change your mind before the change of registration, and once it is registered it belongs to the other person. At divorce, a spouse who hid, transferred or squandered money or forged debts can be given a smaller share or none.

A bigamous marriage is void. Marrying while you already have a spouse, or marrying someone knowing that they have a spouse, brings a sentence of up to 2 years. Cheating someone out of money under the pretext of marriage is prosecuted as the crime of fraud (诈骗罪): a relatively large amount brings up to 3 years, a huge amount 3 to 10 years, and an especially huge amount 10 years or more or life imprisonment. Before you register, look at the marital status on the other person's ID card and household register (户口簿).

The law presumes that the legal representative (法定代表人) is the person who runs the company, and "I was only a name on paper and knew nothing" is not a reason to be excused. When a legal representative causes harm to others in carrying out duties, the company pays first, and after paying it can come back to recover from you if you were at fault. If you are already listed, the Company Law (公司法) allows you to resign, and the company must name a new legal representative within 30 days.

When a dog hurts someone, you generally have to pay whether or not you were at fault, and you can pay less only if you prove the other person acted intentionally or with gross negligence. For an unleashed dog, only "the other person acted intentionally" can reduce your liability, and in more serious cases you may also be detained (拘留). If a dog has not had the rabies vaccine as required, the owner will be ordered to correct it and may be fined. If a banned fierce breed hurts someone, there is no excuse that reduces liability.

Using threats like "I'll go to the police" or "I'll send the photos to your employer" to make you pay is extortion (敲诈勒索). Pay not a cent, delete not a record, and call the police right away, because once you pay the first time there will be a second. If the other side really does send the photos out, that is one more crime on their part. Extorting 2,000 to 5,000 CNY or more brings up to 3 years, and 30,000 to 100,000 CNY or more brings 3 to 10 years.

Making up facts to falsely accuse and frame another person, in order to have them held criminally liable or given a public security punishment, is itself illegal. This brings detention of up to 5 days (拘留) or a fine of up to 1,000 CNY, and in more serious cases detention of 5 to 10 days. When it reaches the level of a crime, it is the crime of false accusation and framing (诬告陷害罪), with a sentence of up to 3 years. But a mistaken memory or a mistaken report does not count, and to hold the other person accountable you have to show that they framed you on purpose.

The threshold for conviction is written into the Criminal Procedure Law (刑事诉讼法): the evidence on which a verdict rests must be verified as true through legal procedure, and, looking at all the evidence in the case, reasonable doubt must be ruled out. If that can't be done, the verdict should be not guilty. Confessions obtained by torture and testimony obtained by violence or threats should be excluded and cannot be used as the basis of a judgment. After a judgment takes effect, you, your legal representative and your close relatives can still file a petition (申诉).

If you were detained (拘留) or arrested (逮捕) and the case was then dropped, not prosecuted or ended in a not-guilty verdict, you can apply for state compensation (国家赔偿). Days in custody are compensated by the day, at 495.94 CNY a day from May 18, 2026, about 180,000 CNY (18万) a year. In cases with serious consequences, compensation for emotional distress is added. There is no compensation if you did commit the act and were simply not prosecuted because it was minor, if the limitation period had passed, if you were under the age of liability, or if you gave a false confession yourself.

As a victim, seeking compensation from the party who wronged you has a legal basis, and does not automatically become extortion (敲诈勒索) because you asked for a high amount. But the cost can be heavy: Guo Li (郭利) was first sentenced to five years for extortion and was only later found not guilty on retrial. So use channels that leave a record, don't go alone to a place the other side picked to talk, and don't say out loud a condition that ties "pay me" to "then I won't expose you."

On the spot, do three things first: turn on the platform's protection settings, use quick evidence capture to save the content, and report it through the quick-access entry. After that, you can apply to the court for an injunction (禁令) to make the person stop first. You can also sue in court yourself, and if collecting evidence is difficult you can ask the public security organs to help. When the consequences are especially serious and the impact is bad, the procuratorate prosecutes, and you don't have to prove the case yourself.

All four doors are closed. Buying a death-benefit insurance policy on someone behind their family's back makes the contract void. If the policyholder intentionally causes the insured's death, the insurer does not pay. Anyone who intentionally kills the person from whom they would inherit loses the right of inheritance. The Criminal Law (刑法) also lists this kind of insurance fraud as a separate item, with sentences combined with that for intentional homicide, up to death. You do not get one cent.

When you report to the police, get a case-acceptance receipt (受案回执) on the spot. It is your only proof that you reported. If the public security organ decides not to open a case, it must give you a written notice of non-filing (不予立案通知书). If you disagree, you can apply for reconsideration within 7 days, and if you still disagree, apply for review within another 7 days. You can also go to the procuratorate and ask it to supervise the police on filing the case.

"Spend a little money to smooth it over" is a separate crime in the Criminal Law (刑法), and the person who paid is arrested too, not only the one who took the money. Bribery brings up to 3 years. In serious cases it is 3 to 10 years, and in especially serious cases 10 years or more or life imprisonment. Bribing supervisory, administrative law-enforcement or judicial personnel is expressly in the heavier tier. If you were extorted into paying and did not obtain any improper benefit, it is not bribery.

With loans, debts, compensation, refunds and labor disputes, if you settle things on the phone and nothing is left behind, a few months later each side may tell a different story. You can record a conversation you take part in yourself, and not telling the other side beforehand does not, on that ground alone, make it unusable as evidence. What you must not do is wiretap, spy on other people's private matters, break into someone's home to record secretly, or threaten the other person into speaking.

Of the women killed worldwide, more than one-third were killed by a partner, often the end of long-term domestic violence. Among women who are beaten in the same way, those who have been strangled are more than 7 times as likely to be killed later as those who have not. So call the police when you are hit, then go to the court to apply for a protection order (人身安全保护令). The court generally has to give an answer within 72 hours.

Money owed at the gambling table is not protected by the courts. If a lender knew the person was borrowing to gamble and lent anyway, the courts do not protect that money either. Money one spouse borrowed to gamble cannot be counted as a debt the couple owe together. Without a trial, a court cannot make the spouse who did not borrow take responsibility for it.

Joking about heroes and martyrs, the national flag or the national anthem brings, in light cases, detention of 5 to 10 days (拘留) or a fine of 1,000 to 3,000 CNY. In heavier cases, detention of 10 to 15 days. When it amounts to a crime, the sentence is up to 3 years. Someone posted 2 messages slandering Yuan Longping in a 499-member village WeChat group and was sentenced to 6 months of public surveillance (管制), which means he was not locked up but his movements were restricted.

These provisions punish passing things on, not looking. Forwarding, bringing material into a group, or echoing it in a comment section all count as spreading when a case is handled. Spreading that reaches the level of inciting subversion or inciting separatism brings up to 5 years, and 5 years or more for ringleaders. Books and audio-video material on terrorism and extremism are an exception: knowingly keeping them in your possession, in serious cases, brings up to 3 years.

Watching on your own is not covered by the penalty provisions. Sending one to a group counts as spreading it to the whole group, with detention of 10 to 15 days (拘留) and a fine of up to 5,000 CNY, and up to 2 years in serious cases. Selling "resources" (资源) for money brings up to 3 years, and up to life imprisonment at the heaviest. Setting up a distribution group of 30 or more people, and whoever sets it up, serves as an administrator or posts most into it, are treated as committing a crime.

Helping people "package their documents" (包装材料) to get loans and taking a cut is handled as fraud. A gang of 126 people packaged jobless people as "high-quality customers" and cheated more than 80 banks out of more than 30,000,000 (3000多万) CNY in loans. The people who appeared and signed took a fee of 30% of the loan amount, and of the 80 people sentenced so far, 76 got 1 year 4 months to 6 years 6 months. Whoever's name the loan is in, the debt is theirs.

Claiming a coupon once per account under your own real identity is outside the scope of punishment. Registering fake users in bulk, or placing an order and taking the delivery yourself to claim more, is handled as fraud: cheating out of 3,000 CNY can bring up to 3 years, and 30,000 CNY (3万) brings 3 to 10 years. A delivery rider used virtual numbers at 0.1 CNY each to farm coupons and cashed out more than 90,000 (9万余) CNY, and all 12 people in the same case were sentenced.

A steel-ball gun or air gun bought online is classified as a firearm once its muzzle specific kinetic energy reaches 1.8 joules per square centimeter. Holding one without a permit brings up to 3 years, and 3 to 7 years in serious cases. A couple sold "toy guns," and 18 of the 43 were assessed as firearms; they were not prosecuted only because it could not be proved that they knew.

Flying without real-name registration brings a fine of up to 200 CNY, and 2,000 to 20,000 CNY (2万) in serious cases. Flying in controlled airspace without approval brings a fine of up to 500 CNY, and in serious cases the drone is confiscated and a further fine of 1,000 to 10,000 CNY (1万) is imposed. In more serious cases there can also be detention of 5 to 10 days (拘留). One person paid to crack the height limit, flew close to 3,000 meters to film clouds and posted it online, and was detained for 5 days.

Small-stakes card playing among relatives and friends is not the law's business. Taking a cut from the game (抽头), acting as the banker (当庄) or organizing games for a fee changes its nature: taking part in gambling with relatively large stakes brings detention of up to 5 days (拘留) or a fine of up to 1,000 CNY. Gathering people to gamble or living off gambling brings up to 3 years, and running a gambling den brings up to 5 years. How much counts as "relatively large stakes" is set by each locality, and there is no single national figure.

Even if the money really is owed to you, you cannot hold or lock up the person. The statute says so specifically: holding or locking someone up to collect a debt is still handled as unlawful detention (非法拘禁). In light cases, detention of 10 to 15 days (拘留) and a fine of 1,000 to 2,000 CNY. The crime of unlawful detention (非法拘禁罪) brings up to 3 years, 3 to 10 years if the person is seriously injured, and 10 years or more if the person dies. To collect a debt, sue in court.

Obstructing law enforcement on the spot brings a warning or a fine of up to 500 CNY, and detention of 5 to 10 days (拘留) in serious cases. Using force on the police is a separate tier: biting, slapping, kicking, hitting, body-slamming or throwing things, causing a minor injury (轻微伤) or worse, counts as violent assault on the police (暴力袭警), with a sentence of up to 3 years. Using a firearm or a controlled knife, or ramming with a vehicle, brings 3 to 7 years. Ordinary resistance such as pulling your arm away or breaking free does not count.

If the other person is under 14, whether or not she agrees, it is handled as rape with a heavier sentence, and the basic sentence is 3 to 10 years. If the other person is under 12, you are always found to "have been supposed to know." For ages 12 to 14, if from her development, behavior and clothing it can be seen that she may be a girl under 14, and you went ahead anyway, you are found to have "known." The courts examine a claim that you truly did not know very strictly.

If you can't raise the child, there is a way out, but only one lawful way: go to the civil affairs department (民政部门) to register an adoption, and the adoption relationship takes effect only from the day of registration. Privately giving a child to someone, especially for money, can turn from "placing for adoption" into the crime of trafficking children (拐卖儿童罪), which starts at 5 years or more. Abandoning a child or refusing to support one, in egregious cases, is the crime of abandonment (遗弃罪), with up to 5 years.

Being caught does not end with paying a small fine. The default tier in the statute is detention (拘留) of 10 to 15 days, and a further fine of up to 5,000 CNY. Only in lighter cases is it detention of up to 5 days or a fine of up to 1,000 CNY. In addition, paying for sex while knowing you have syphilis or gonorrhea is a crime, with a sentence of up to 5 years.

Even if fan fiction borrows only the characters' names, personalities and relationships, publishing it can be found to be infringement. Jiang Nan's (江南) "The Boys in This Town" (《此间的少年》) borrowed more than 60 of Jin Yong's characters, and on appeal he was ordered to pay 1,680,000 CNY (168万) plus 200,000 CNY (20万) in expenses. The case dragged on for 9 years and ended in mediation, in which he agreed not to reissue it as it was. For fan fiction written for free for fun, the court said it must be analyzed case by case.

Daggers, spring knives, batons and stun devices, if found on you when you go out, can bring detention of up to 5 days (拘留). Taking them into a station, a mall or a bus brings detention of 5 to 10 days. Actually using one can also backfire: someone was punched by an unarmed man and then stabbed him with a knife he had hidden beforehand, and was sentenced to 4 years for excessive defense (防卫过当).

In 2024, 6,106,000 (610.6万) marriage registrations were made nationwide, 20% fewer than the year before, and 3,513,000 (351.3万) divorces. The claim online that more than half of marriages end in divorce comes from dividing one of these numbers by the other, which gives about 57.5%. But the people divorcing and the people marrying are not the same group, so it can't be read as half of marriages ending in divorce. The marriage rate of 4.3‰ and divorce rate of 2.5‰ in the statistical bulletin are calculated by dividing by the national population.

Without a written agreement, the law by default treats wages and bonuses earned after marriage, business and investment income, and inherited or gifted property as owned jointly by the two. Property from before marriage, and property that a will or gift contract says goes to only one side, is personal. The two can agree in writing that each keeps their own, and once signed it is binding. The side who put in more for raising children and caring for older people can ask for compensation at divorce.

When parents pay for a home before marriage, it is by default only for their own child. Money paid after marriage without an agreement is counted as the couple's joint property. Since February 2025, when one side's parents paid the full price after marriage and did not state that it is for their own child only, at divorce the court can award the home to the child of the paying side, and then decide whether to compensate the other side. If you want it counted as a loan, write it out that day and have both sides sign.

Money your spouse borrowed behind your back, if it clearly exceeds the family's everyday spending and you neither signed nor acknowledged it afterward, does not automatically become your debt. The creditor has to prove that the money was used for the couple's shared life or shared business. But if money like a home purchase really did turn into a home you live in together or co-own, the other side can often prove that.

Since May 2025, registering a marriage takes two things: your own ID card and a signed statement. The statement says you have no spouse and are not direct blood relatives or collateral blood relatives within three generations of the other person. You don't need to bring the household register (户口簿), and you don't have to go back to where one side's household is registered. Registration costs nothing, and the certificate is issued on the spot if the conditions are met.

An agreed divorce is not done when you sign. Within 30 days after the application is filed, either side can withdraw it. When the period ends, the two must go in person within 30 days to collect the divorce certificate, and if they don't, it counts as withdrawn. If the other side does not agree, the only way is to sue. The court mediates first, and unless there is domestic violence, bigamy, or separation for a full two years, and mediation fails, it will not grant the divorce.

Under the law, close relatives (近亲属) are the spouse, parents, children, siblings and the like, and a partner is not included. Without documents prepared in advance, when one is seriously ill the other cannot make decisions for him. When one dies, the other inherits nothing at all. Three documents each cover one stretch: a power of attorney (授权委托) while you are alive, consensual guardianship (意定监护) after you lose the ability to make judgments, and a will after death.

Holding a wedding without registering the marriage does not make you spouses in law; it counts only as living together. If the other person dies, you cannot inherit their estate as a spouse. If you want to separate, the court does not handle it as a divorce. Registering after the fact solves this, and the effect of the registration counts backward.

A script that doesn't change memory or crack anything, and only sends requests faster than a person can, can still lead to a conviction. Earning 5,000 CNY or causing the other side a loss of 10,000 CNY is enough. One person used bought 12306 (China's national railway ticketing site) accounts to grab more than 200 tickets for others and earned more than 20,000 CNY. The sentence was 1 year 6 months, suspended for 1 year 6 months, and a fine of 5,000 CNY. Someone who sold ticket-grabbing software in an online shop paid 20,000 CNY in damages for unfair competition.

Data you can only get with a login, a token, or by cracking a signature counts as getting around protection, with up to 3 years, and 3 to 7 years in serious cases. Scraping personal information is more serious. 50 items of location, communications, credit or property information count as serious circumstances. So do 500 items of lodging, health or transaction information, 5,000 items of other kinds, or earning 5,000 CNY.

Jobs like this pay well and have vague requirements. If you take one, you count as an accomplice of the gambling ring. Under the crime of running a gambling venue (开设赌场罪) the sentence is up to 5 years, and 5 to 10 years in serious cases. That is heavier than simply helping out, which carries up to 3 years. In one esports betting app, 28 people who wrote the code got 1 year to 3 years 6 months. A person who unblocked QQ accounts for a fraud ring got 1 year 6 months and a fine of 20,000 CNY.

If you set up your own line abroad, or use an international channel other than the state's public channels, the police can order you to stop the connection, give a warning, fine you up to 15,000 CNY and confiscate illegal gains. For those doing it as a business, the investigating authority may handle it as the crime of illegal business operation (非法经营罪), with up to 5 years in serious cases. This item is about selling and setting up nodes. For personal use, the penalty goes no higher than a warning plus a fine.

A non-compete (竞业限制) means that for a period after you leave you may not work for a competitor. It lasts 2 years at most, and the company must pay compensation every month. If no amount was agreed, it is 30% of your average wage over the 12 months before you left, and not below the local minimum wage. If the company fails to pay for 3 months for its own reasons, you can ask to terminate it. From 2025, if your post never touched trade secrets, you can ask that the clause be declared ineffective.

Filing costs nothing, and through a cloud vendor's process it takes about a few weeks. A site on a server in China that is not filed will be shut down. If a filer says it is free but actually charges, the fine is 100,000 to 1,000,000 CNY. Logs must be kept for a full 6 months, and for refusing to correct, or when harm results, the fine is 10,000 to 100,000 CNY.

A generative AI service aimed at the public that can influence public opinion or mobilize people needs a security assessment and an algorithm filing before launch, and a change or shutdown must also be filed or canceled. Generated images and videos must be labeled. Small tools for your own use that are not open to the public don't need any of this. Violations are punished under the Cybersecurity Law and other laws.

Making software that skips or blocks ads in other companies' apps for users can get you sued for unfair competition. It can count even if you charge nothing, because the businesses the law covers include individuals who provide services. A browser that blocked Mango TV's (芒果TV) intro ads by default paid 800,000 CNY in damages. An app that let people skip Mango TV's splash ads directly paid 80,000 CNY for the loss.

An AI relay station (AI 中转站) is a website that resells access to overseas large-model APIs at low prices. A site operator in Shanghai was placed in criminal detention for 37 days over this. After release on bail, he said himself that he would surely be sentenced, and he has already returned the money and illegal gains. The Ministry of State Security (国家安全部) has also issued a notice saying that many relay stations have no operating qualification and privately send user data abroad.

Sole proprietors and general partners are liable to the end, repaying however much is owed. Shareholders of a limited company are liable only for the amount they promised at registration. But whatever amount you promised must actually be paid in within 5 years: if you entered 1,000,000 (100万) CNY, you may owe 1,000,000 CNY. If the company's accounts and your own household accounts are mixed together, the "limited" protection can also fail.

Under the rules, the brand owner must first run 2 company-owned stores for 1 year, and within 15 days after signing it must file with the commerce authority (商务部门). Before you sign, it must give you written materials covering 12 items, including the franchise fee, how the deposit is refunded, and whether existing stores make money. If you can't find a filing, they won't hand over the materials, or they want money before you can see the contract, walk away.

Registration itself costs nothing, and registration fees were stopped in 2015. Only five kinds of materials are needed: the application, proof of identity or qualification, documents for the business premises, the articles of association or partnership agreement (sole proprietors don't need one), and anything else that regulations specifically name. With complete materials the license is issued on the spot, and if it can't be issued on the spot, it is done within 3 working days. The money that gets charged is mostly an agent's running-around fee.

Opening without a permit can mean, at the lighter end, an order to close, confiscation of what you earned, and a fine of up to 10,000 CNY. If what you do is exclusive-sale goods, or securities, futures, insurance or payment and settlement, then in serious circumstances it becomes the crime of illegal business operation (非法经营罪), with sentences starting at up to 5 years. Fitting out the premises before getting the permit, or trial operation before the permit is issued, is the most common misstep.

If you make something and sell it, such as a snack shop, braised foods, baking or homemade pickles, you need a permit. Selling only fully packaged food made by someone else needs no permit, only a filing with the market regulation department at county level or above. Selling fresh meat and vegetables needs no permit. Doing it without a permit brings a fine of at least 50,000 to 100,000 CNY, which is more than the starting capital of most small businesses.

Food that is put into packaging and then sold is called prepackaged food in law. The packaging must carry a label, with nine required items, including the production date and shelf life. Bulk food must also be marked with the name, the date and the seller's name and address. For a required item left off, if the goods are worth under 10,000 CNY, the fine is 5,000 to 50,000 CNY, and if they are worth 10,000 CNY or more, the fine is 5 to 10 times the value of the goods.

The labels, instructions and ads of ordinary food may not say it prevents or cures disease. Apart from the three kinds of ads for medical services, drugs and medical devices, no ad may claim to cure disease, or use words that sound like medicine. The fine is 1 to 3 times the cost of the ads. If the ad cost can't be worked out, the fine is 100,000 to 200,000 CNY. In serious cases the business license can also be revoked.

The earlier items are about fines. This one is about people. Selling meat from sick or dead animals, meat that failed inspection, or goods with pesticide, veterinary drug or heavy metal residues far over the limit is a crime as long as it is "enough" to cause serious poisoning. No one has to actually be made ill, and the sentence is up to 3 years. Mixing toxic or harmful non-food ingredients into food starts at up to 5 years, whatever the amount you sold.

Once you hold a license you must file taxes on schedule. Even if you earned nothing, you still file, with every number on the form entered as zero. For not filing, the fine is first up to 2,000 CNY, and 2,000 to 10,000 CNY in serious cases. If you file nothing for any tax for 3 months in a row, the system automatically lists you as an abnormal taxpayer and you can no longer issue invoices.

If you are a small-scale taxpayer paying tax under the simplified method, selling under 100,000 CNY a month or under 300,000 CNY a quarter means no value-added tax. The rate that was 3% is also cut to 1% for the same period. On the other hand, "finding someone to issue invoices to offset costs" is false invoicing (虚开), with a sentence starting at up to 3 years and a fine of 20,000 to 200,000 CNY.

The tax authorities do not phone to ask for your bank card password, payment password or text-message verification code, and they do not give you an account to pay tax into. If they really come to check your books, they must show a notice of inspection and an inspection certificate. If you get a call like this, hang up first, then call 12366 (China's tax service hotline) to check. If you have already sent money, call 110 (China's police number) or 96110 (China's anti-fraud hotline) right away to have the payment stopped.

Only the word "定金" brings the double-return rule: if you break the contract, you don't get the money back, and if the other side breaks it, they must return double. The part above 20% of the contract amount doesn't count. If it is written as "订金," the law has no such rule. Giving payment terms is the same as lending your own money to the other side for nothing, and if they go under, it is a bad debt.

If a person has worked a full month and no written contract has been signed, from the second month on you must pay double wages for each month, counted up to a full year. Social insurance must be registered within 30 days of starting to employ someone, and if you don't, the fine is 1 to 3 times the social insurance fees owed. The law has no item for an "employee voluntarily giving up social insurance."

Wages must be paid on time and in full as the contract and the law require. If they are owed, the employee can go straight to the court for a payment order. Raises, bonuses and advances that were only spoken about count for little, and if a real dispute comes, the side without evidence loses out. If you lend your own money to an employee, write a proper IOU stating the amount, the interest and when it is to be repaid.

Selling fakes is enough for a sentence of up to 3 years if you earn 30,000 CNY or sell 50,000 CNY worth. Goods left unsold in the warehouse also count. "I didn't know they were fake" is not for you to decide: if your purchase price is clearly below the market price and you can't explain why, you will be found to have known. Keeping the purchase contract, invoice, payment record and the supplier's details is what leaves you a route to avoid paying damages.

If you have no debts and owe no wages, taxes or social insurance, all investors sign a written commitment, and if no one objects during 20 days of public notice, you can use simplified deregistration (简易注销). Sole proprietors need no notice, and are deregistered directly if no one objects within 10 days. If you can't pay your debts, apply for bankruptcy. If a business is left unattended, files no annual report for 2 years and can't be reached, its license is revoked, and the legal representative responsible can't serve as a legal representative again for 3 years.

Companies and sole proprietors must file the previous year's annual report online once a year, in the first half of the year. If you don't, you go on the list of abnormal business operations, and after filing late you can apply to be removed from it. The annual report is free. Anyone who phones to say you missed the filing and tells you to pay an agent through a mini-program or official account is a scammer, and people have been sentenced to 10 years or more for it. First check the publicity system yourself.

If helping someone costs you, you do not have to accept the loss as bad luck. For people injured acting bravely for a just cause (见义勇为), treatment comes first and payment after. The medical bills are paid by the person who caused the harm, and if that person has run off or can't pay, basic medical insurance covers it. If there is no one who caused the harm, the person you saved should, by law, give you appropriate compensation. At the same time, apply for official recognition as acting bravely for a just cause, and if you were injured, the benefits are carried out as for a work injury insurance case.

If your card is swiped by someone else, you don't have to prove "this wasn't me." It is the other way around: the bank has to produce evidence that you swiped it yourself, and if it can't, it has to pay you back. This assumes you report it lost and freeze it as soon as you find out. If you delay, you bear the extra loss that follows.

If an app asks for information that this service doesn't need in order to work, it can't stop you from using the app because you refuse. What it may collect is also limited to what it needs. A map needs your location, but a flashlight app doesn't need your contacts.

You have the right to ask a company to let you see, copy, correct and delete your information. If the service has ended, the retention period has run out, or you have withdrawn your consent, the company should delete it on its own. If it refuses you, it must give its reasons, and if it does nothing, you can sue it directly in court. Closing an account and deleting information are two different things: after closing an account, you still have to make a separate request to delete.

As long as there is another way to get the same thing done, the other side can't require only a face scan. If you don't agree to a face scan, they have to offer another way, such as a card, a password or an ID card, and they may not pressure you by saying "then we can't handle your business." Face recognition equipment may not be installed in hotel rooms, public baths, changing rooms or restrooms, by anyone.

How much the deposit is, when it will be returned, and what can be deducted from it should all be written into the contract before you sign. A reason for deduction that isn't in the contract can't be used by the landlord to take money out of your deposit when you move out.

A landlord may not cut off your water or power, change the locks, or come and threaten you to make you end the lease or move out. Regulations expressly forbid it. If it happens, call the police first. The police record is evidence you can use later to demand compensation for your losses. Don't try to confront the other person yourself.

Under the rules, rent and deposits cannot be collected and paid through an agent, and the money goes straight to the landlord. Each time the money passes through the agent, there is one more chance for it to run off with the funds. If it does, you lose the rent you paid and the landlord can still evict you. Before paying, check that the payee's name matches the name on the property ownership certificate.

Paying a year at once gets you only a small discount. If the company collapses, your deposit and the 10-odd months of rent still left are lost together. A rent loan (租金贷) is worse: if the company disappears, you still have to repay the loan month by month. Before signing, check whether it publicly lists a funds supervision account.

If the home is sold during your lease term, your lease still stands. The new owner has to let you live there under the original contract until it ends. You don't have to move, and you don't have to renegotiate the price. This assumes you are already lawfully living there, so keep the contract, transfer records and proof of when you moved in.

The price of a home runs from hundreds of thousands to millions of yuan, the largest single payment in this book. When an agent collects the payment, the rules require it to go through the dedicated account the agent opened at a bank, not a WeChat transfer to the broker personally. Also, when two agencies work one deal together, only one commission can be charged, and arranging a loan or handling the title transfer requires a separate contract with the fees stated beforehand.

Under the rules, the smallest unit that can be rented out is a room as originally designed. Kitchens, bathrooms, balconies and underground storage rooms may not be lived in. If such a unit is penalized after an inspection, you may have to move out. Also, during the lease term the landlord cannot raise the rent just by saying so.

People with an urban hukou (城镇户口) cannot buy homestead land (宅基地), a farmer's house or a "small-property-rights home" (小产权房) in a village, and national documents expressly forbid it. It does not help if villagers say "just write a contract." You pay the money and the house still doesn't become yours. If you want to live in the countryside long term, sign a lease, which can run for up to 20 years at a time and be renewed when it ends.

An off-plan home is one that goes on sale before it is built. Without a pre-sale permit, the developer may not sell it or take a deposit. The rules require your down payment and loan to go entirely into the supervision account, and the supervision is lifted only once the home can be delivered. Money sent to any other account is outside this protection.

If you paid a subscription deposit and no formal contract was signed, or the contract says a loan will be used but the loan is not approved, and the cause lies neither with you nor with the developer (for example, policy tightened or the bank stopped lending after signing), the developer must refund the deposit or the purchase payment with interest. If the cause is your own overdue payments on your credit record or insufficient income, the deposit is not refunded.

If the contract says nothing else, and the area registered after handover differs from the contract by 3% or less, the price is settled on the actual area (refund the excess, make up the shortfall). If the difference is more than 3%, you can return the home, and the developer must refund your money plus interest within 30 days. Specific promises in ads about the community's homes and facilities, if they affect whether you buy, count even when they are not written into the contract.

If the developer delivers late, first press it in writing; if it still has not delivered within three months, you can cancel the purchase. If the contract has no penalty clause, the developer pays you the rent for similar homes in the same location. If you cannot get the property ownership certificate (产权证) because of the developer, you are also compensated; if the delay goes more than one year past the certificate deadline, you can cancel the purchase. The right to cancel has a time limit, so don't keep putting off a decision.

Before signing, take your ID to the real-estate registration office (不动产登记机构) and check whether the home is mortgaged or sealed, and whether it has already been registered to someone else. If the contract provides for advance notice registration, go and do it right after signing. Once it is done, if the seller sells or mortgages the home again without your consent, the registration office will not process it. Once the formal transfer becomes possible, you have to act within 90 days, or the notice lapses.

A mortgage rate is a benchmark rate plus a few points. The added points used to be fixed when you signed; since 2024 you are allowed to renegotiate them with the bank. If your rate is noticeably higher than the nationwide rate on newly issued mortgages, you can ask the bank to lower it, or apply for a new loan to replace the old one. On a loan of 1,000,000 (100万) CNY over 30 years, a rate half a percentage point lower saves about 100,000 (10万) CNY in interest.

For high blood pressure, diabetes, outpatient chemo and radiotherapy for malignant tumors, dialysis for uremia, and anti-rejection drugs after an organ transplant, these 5 kinds of care can be paid directly with your medical insurance (医保) even when you see a doctor in another place. You don't have to pay up front and then claim reimbursement where your insurance is registered. But you first have to get the outpatient chronic-and-special-disease status approved where you are insured, and then register for out-of-area care. It only works once both are done.

If your condition is stable and your medicines haven't changed, a community health service center (社区卫生服务中心) can give you a full 12 weeks of medicine at a time. That saves the half day of traveling to a big hospital and queuing to register every month. Within the same place where you are insured, the reimbursement rate at a primary-level hospital is also usually about 10 percentage points higher than at the next level up.

The basic service package of the sign-up is covered by medical insurance under the rules. For personalized service packages, you pay the whole cost yourself. When someone pushes an "upgrade package," first ask whether it is the basic package or a personalized one, whether it is on file with the authorities, and how much it costs a year.

The law recognizes 6 kinds of will, but if the form is wrong, the whole will is void, and this is the most common way it goes wrong. A will you write yourself must be handwritten by you from beginning to end, signed, with the year, month and day written out. If you made several wills whose contents conflict, the last one made counts. From 2021, a notarized will also no longer automatically ranks first.

There is only one proper way to live off your home: the insurance companies' reverse-mortgage eldercare insurance on a home (住房反向抵押养老保险), which is still a pilot. The kind that comes knocking on your door has nothing to do with it. It tricks older people into mortgaging their homes, and then uses the borrowed money to buy the financial products it recommends. Some people don't even know their homes have been mortgaged, and in the end they lose the home and are still left with the loan.

Long-term care insurance (长期护理保险) helps pay for hiring someone to provide care. If someone at home is severely disabled and has been for more than half a year, apply to the medical insurance bureau where they are insured. You don't have to pay care fees up front: it covers about 70% for those insured as employees and about 50% for those insured as urban and rural residents, and does not cover bed fees or meals. There is no age requirement, and a young person who is severely disabled can also apply.

If your child was born on or after January 1, 2025 and is not yet 3, you can claim this money. One of the parents applies where the child's hukou is registered. It is 3600 yuan per child per year, paid until the child turns 3. The money is not subject to personal income tax. When you apply for assistance such as the minimum living allowance (低保), it is also not counted as your household's income.

You are entitled to at least 98 days of maternity leave, and you can take 15 days of it before the birth. A difficult birth adds 15 days. Each additional baby also adds 15 days. The money paid during this time is called the maternity allowance (生育津贴) and comes from the maternity insurance fund. If your employer did not enroll you in maternity insurance, the employer pays it.

During pregnancy, after giving birth and while nursing, it is illegal for the employer to cut your pay or dismiss you, and it is fined 1000 to 5000 yuan per person. If your child is under 1 year old, you have 1 hour a day for nursing, and the employer also may not schedule you for overtime or night shifts. For how to claim compensation, see .

Overtime on an ordinary working day is paid at 1.5 times your wage. Overtime on a rest day, when you are not given time off in exchange, is paid at 2 times. Work on a statutory holiday such as New Year's Day, Spring Festival, Labor Day or National Day is paid at 3 times, and it cannot be replaced with time off. If the company doesn't pay, complain to labor inspection. If it still doesn't pay after being ordered to pay by a deadline, the employer must add a further half to a full amount of what it owes.

If your total years of work across all employers add up to at least 1 year but under 10, you get 5 days of annual leave a year. At 10 years it is 10 days, and at 20 years it is 15 days. Years carry over when you change jobs. If the employer can't schedule your leave and you agree not to take it, those days are paid at 3 times the daily wage. Once you sign a form "voluntarily giving up annual leave," all that is left is your normal wage.

For a contract of under 1 year, probation is at most 1 month. For 1 to 3 years, at most 2 months. For more than 3 years, at most 6 months. A company can put you on probation only once, and it is illegal to have you do it again after you move to a different post once you're confirmed. Probation pay may not be less than 80% of the lowest grade for the same post or of the wage in the contract, and not below the local minimum wage.

Severance pay (经济补偿) the company owes you when it lets you go is worked out like this: one month's pay for a full year, a period of at least six months but under a year counts as a year, and under six months is half a month. The monthly pay here is the average of your last 12 months before leaving, with bonuses, allowances and subsidies all included. If your pay is more than 3 times the local average monthly wage for the previous year, it is capped at 3 times, and at most 12 years are counted.

If the company dismisses you because you can't do your job after an illness, because you are not able to do the work, or because circumstances have changed greatly, and it did not give 30 days' written notice in advance, it must pay one more month's wage on top of N. This is the commonly mentioned N+1. When you negotiate, list this one month separately, and don't let the company count it inside N.

If the company ended the contract unlawfully, the compensation (赔偿金) is double the severance standard, which is the commonly mentioned 2N. Whether it was an unlawful termination depends on the specific facts. Ask legal aid or a lawyer first, and then decide whether to negotiate with the company or go to arbitration.

If you sign to admit "resigned voluntarily for personal reasons," severance pay and unemployment insurance benefits usually both disappear. Quitting on your own is not among the situations in which severance is paid, except when the company is at fault, such as owing wages or not paying social insurance. You don't have to sign the same day; sleep on it first.

In disputes such as dismissal and wage deductions, the employer has the burden of proof, but for overtime you have to prove it first, and the employer only needs to keep its wage records for two years. Once you hand back your computer and accounts, you can't get these materials. With your pay slips, attendance records, social insurance records and original chat records in hand, you have something to rely on when the employer denies it.

When you sign, the employer must truthfully write into the contract what occupational disease hazards the post has, how you will be protected, and what benefits you get. If it hid them from you, you can refuse to do the job, and the employer cannot dismiss you for that. The 3 occupational health checkups, before starting the job, while on the job and on leaving the job, are arranged and paid for by the employer. If the leaving checkup has not been done, the employer cannot end your contract.

An injury at work counts as a work injury. Being hit on the way to or from work, when the main fault is not yours, also counts. But without a work-injury determination, medical costs, wages that continue to be paid while you recover, and the disability allowance are all lost. The employer should file within 30 days. If it doesn't, you, your family or the labor union can file with the social insurance administrative department yourselves within one year.

If your employer did not pay work-injury insurance for you, you still get the work-injury benefits. They are simply paid in full by the employer, for the same items and at the same standard, not a cent less. Not enrolling is an added penalty for the employer: it is ordered to make up the payments, charged a late fee of five ten-thousandths (万分之五) a day, and if overdue it is also fined 1 to 3 times the amount owed. "The company didn't buy work-injury insurance, so it can't pay you" is false.

Once the injury is stable, go for a work-capacity assessment (劳动能力鉴定), and the grade converts directly into money. The one-time disability allowance is worked out on your own wage: Grade 5 is 18 months, Grade 6 is 16 months, Grade 7 is 13 months, Grade 8 is 11 months, Grade 9 is 9 months and Grade 10 is 7 months. Before the assessment result comes out, don't sign an agreement to "settle it once and for all."

A death at work brings three payments, so don't discuss only one. The funeral allowance (丧葬补助金) is 6 months of the local average monthly wage of employees for the previous year. The pension for dependent relatives is paid monthly based on the deceased's own wage: 40% a month for a spouse and 30% a month for each other relative. The one-time work-death allowance (一次性工亡补助金) is 20 times the previous year's per capita disposable income of urban residents nationwide, and that is a single nationwide figure.

Whether you were dismissed, your contract ended or you resigned, the employer must give you a separation certificate (离职证明) when you leave, and transfer your personnel file and social insurance within 15 days. The certificate should state the contract term, the leaving date, the post and how many years you worked there. You need it to register as unemployed. If the employer won't give it, the labor department will order it to correct that, and if you suffer a loss because of it, the employer must pay you for it.

For the lump-sum payment you get for ending a labor contract, the part within 3 times the local average employee wage for the previous year pays no personal income tax. The part above that is taxed separately and is not added to the year's wages. If the employer added the whole sum to the month's pay and withheld tax, first ask the employer to explain, and then call 12366 (China's tax service hotline) to ask the tax bureau.

When you move to another city for work, both your pension and medical insurance can follow you, and the years you paid before keep adding up. If you haven't reached the age to collect a pension, you can't withdraw your contributions by canceling the insurance. If medical insurance payments lapse for more than 3 months, you may have to wait up to 6 months for reimbursement in the new place, so don't leave a long gap.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (外交部) sorts overseas safety risks into 4 levels, and the highest is called "do not travel for now" (暂勿前往). From September 15, 2026, avoiding high-risk countries and regions has been written into administrative regulations. When you apply for documents and go through exit checks, staff will also remind you and, where necessary, advise you not to go. Looking over that page before you leave takes a few minutes.

For help in an emergency there is just one number. From inside China call 12308, and from abroad call +86-10-12308 (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' consular protection and services hotline). Since it opened, this hotline has taken more than 3,000,000 (300多万) calls. Over the same period, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its missions abroad handled more than 500,000 (50多万) consular protection cases.

If you are arrested abroad, what the embassy or consulate can do is: check the situation with the local authorities, ask that the case be handled fairly according to law, visit you, and attend the trial as an observer. It cannot change the verdict for you, and it cannot take you away. Money that someone else advanced for lodging, transport and medical care is in the end paid by you. So before you go abroad, have money and insurance ready, and don't treat "the state will cover me if something happens" as a plan.

The cap on cash withdrawals abroad is not per card. It counts all bank cards in your name together (supplementary cards too), at CNY 100,000 (10万) per calendar year. Once you hit it, you cannot withdraw cash abroad for the rest of that year or in the following year. Only cash withdrawal is stopped. Paying by card is not affected, and does not use up your yearly foreign exchange purchase quota of 50,000 (5万) USD.

From September 15, 2026, agents that handle visas, study abroad and immigration must register with the immigration administration. Phrases like "guaranteed pass," "visa guaranteed" and "we prepare the materials for you" are themselves expressly prohibited. If you fill in a form wrong yourself, at worst this application is refused. If you use false materials and are found to have committed fraud, the stain stays in your later entry and exit records.

If you issue an invitation letter or application materials for someone else and the content is untrue, the penalty falls on the person who issued it. An individual is fined CNY 5,000 to 10,000 (1万), and any illegal gains are confiscated as well. An organization is fined 10,000 (1万) to 50,000 (5万), and the person who handled it is fined a further 5,000 to 10,000 (1万). One favor ends with you paying this money yourself.

A 2022 notice from five departments states that script-based entertainment venues (剧本娱乐场所) may not be set up inside residential buildings or below the first basement level. These places are dark, have many partitions and flammable props, and the doors often have to be opened by solving a puzzle. If a fire starts, it is much harder to escape than from an ordinary shop. Before booking, look at the address and floor on the review page, and if it doesn't comply, go somewhere else.

Finishing middle school usually happens at 15 or 16, right at this line. Under 16, an employer who hires you is breaking the law and is fined 5000 CNY a month for each child worker. So the employers who will take you are the ones who know it is illegal and do it anyway. If something goes wrong, medical bills and compensation can only be claimed from that employer, and if it refuses to pay or disappears, no one else covers it.

In the 2020 census, about 15% of people nationwide had finished junior college (大专) or higher. A 2025 sample survey estimates about 19%, a rise of a few percentage points in five years. In both, the largest group is people whose highest level is middle school. People 15 and older have studied an average of only 9.91 years, just past middle-school graduation. So in China a middle-school education is not “enough”; it is the most ordinary level.

At public secondary vocational schools (中职), rural students, urban students in agriculture-related majors and students from low-income families already have tuition waived. Since spring 2025, the stipend for secondary vocational and regular high school students is 2300 CNY a year. At college, the stipend is 3700 CNY a year, and a student loan lets you borrow up to 20,000 (2万) CNY a year. If money is short you can delay, or find another way; it is rarely so bad that you must quit school and go to work right now.

The 2022 Vocational Education Law (职业教育法) states that vocational education and general education are equally important. Secondary vocational schools can admit students through a continuous pathway into higher vocational colleges (高职), and those colleges must set aside enrollment places or hold separate exams specifically for secondary vocational graduates. Employers also may not set barriers against you because you graduated from a vocational school. Falling short of the score for regular high school means taking a different road, not stopping at a middle-school education.

Some organizations use the names “new occupations” and “skill levels” to run classes at will, charge fees at will and hand out certificates freely, and some pose as authoritative bodies; the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (人社部) has cracked down on this. Before signing up, check three things: whether the occupation is in the national occupational qualification catalog, whether the issuing body is an evaluation organization registered with the human resources and social security department, and whether the certificate number can be looked up on an official platform. If you can't find it, the registration fee is wasted.

From 2025 to the end of 2027, the state plans to run subsidized training for more than 30,000,000 (3000万) person-times. The money comes from several sources, including employment subsidy funds, unemployment insurance funds and enterprise employee-education funds. The scarcer a trade is and the higher its training cost, the higher the subsidy. If you have a job, ask your employer first; otherwise, look through your local human resources and social security bureau's subsidy catalog first, then decide what to learn.

The state is promoting the “new eight-grade worker” system (新八级工), which asks employers to link job pay to skill grade, and lets outstanding employees be certified at a grade without regard to years of service or seniority. This is a policy direction, and it varies a great deal between regions and employers. Only a skill that has a national occupational standard and a grade path can later lead to raises by grade, so check whether yours has one before you start.

How large a training subsidy a place gives for a trade is set by how urgently the trade is short of workers and by the cost of training, so the size of the subsidy shows whether your area is really short. When you read online that a trade pays so much a month, it is mostly the asking price on a job-listing platform or someone's own account. What you see are mostly the people who made money, and the numbers leave out working hours, commuting, occupational disease and busy and slow seasons.

Professional titles (职称) nationwide are divided into 27 series, and each series has junior, intermediate and senior levels. You generally apply one level at a time, moving up. If you work for an organization, your employer reviews and posts your application before sending it up. If you work for a private company, you can go to a professional-title application service point, or apply through a talent intermediary agency or an industry association. Freelancers apply to the review organized by the local human resources and social security department.

In some series, the junior and intermediate titles are earned by passing an exam, and once you pass, you have the title with no separate review. Accounting works this way: an assistant accountant (助理会计师) needs a high school education or above, and an accountant (会计师) needs 4 years of accounting work with a bachelor's degree, or 5 years with a junior-college degree (大专). People who already hold certain professional qualifications may be counted directly as having the corresponding title.

A title obtained with false materials, a ghostwritten paper or plagiarized work is revoked once confirmed. The record of dishonesty is kept for 3 years and also goes onto the national credit platform. If the statement of commitment you signed when applying turns out to be untrue, you cannot apply again for 3 years. The human resources and social security departments also specifically investigate agencies for false advertising, posing as review bodies, and fake certificates.

A professional title is a basis for hiring, evaluation and promotion, but being rated and being appointed are two different things. Public institutions (事业单位) generally rate within a position quota, and once you are rated you will mostly be appointed. An employer that does not run a position-management system can separate rating from appointment, so you may be rated and the employer still does not necessarily give you the matching position and pay. After changing employers or places, your title may have to be re-evaluated or confirmed.

If you go to the community clinic first and are then referred to a large hospital for admission, the part you pay out of pocket first (the deductible, 起付线) is counted only once. If you go straight to a tertiary hospital (三级医院) for admission and are later transferred back to the community for rehabilitation, you may have to pay that part twice. When you are moved from a large hospital back to a community facility to continue the same stay, the deductible is not counted again for the same illness during that period.

For the same hospital bill, the lower the hospital's grade, the more is reimbursed. Each region is required to widen the gap between grades, by about ten percentage points for each step up. For example, on a hospital bill of 10,000 (1万) CNY, if reimbursement drops from 80% to 70%, what you pay yourself goes from 2000 CNY to 3000 CNY. New medical insurance funds are also being tilted toward primary-level care.

Large hospitals must set aside a share of appointments and beds specifically for people referred from primary care. Hospitals must also set up a referral center, or designate a fixed department in charge of referrals, with full coverage by 2027. Not being able to book an appointment does not mean there is no way in. Besides being expensive, a scalper's appointment may send you to a department that doesn't fit your problem.

Whether you should go elsewhere for treatment is, in principle, assessed by an associate chief physician (副主任医师) or higher at a secondary or tertiary hospital. How much is reimbursed for temporary care away from home differs from what you would get at a hospital of the same grade where your insurance is registered, depending on local rules. Asking locally before you leave beats finding out after you arrive that it can't be reimbursed.

If you have doubts about your treatment, you can ask for the medical records to be sealed. Sealing requires both the patient side and the hospital side to be present, an inventory made, and signatures and stamps, with each side taking a copy. If the records are not finished yet, seal the part that is already written. If you suspect the problem came from an infusion, blood transfusion, injection or medication, the bag of fluid, the drug and the infusion set must be sealed together.

The state has a disease emergency relief fund (疾病应急救助基金) that pays emergency care costs for two kinds of people: those whose identity can't be established, and those who can't pay. A hospital may not refuse or delay emergency treatment, and an emergency center may not decline to send an ambulance over money. So don't tough it out at home for lack of money, and don't hold back from calling an ambulance for fear of unpaid bills. This fund covers emergency care only; any hospital stay afterward still goes through medical insurance and medical assistance.

How much compensation you get depends mainly on what grade you are rated, and the grade depends on how much impairment remains after treatment is finished. The standard says the assessment should be done after treatment has ended, or once the clinical result has stabilized. If you go for an assessment while the bone hasn't healed and the plate hasn't been removed, what gets rated is how things look at that moment, which is the same as pushing your own grade down. An ordinary fracture that has healed and does not affect function will not be rated.

The disability certificate (残疾人证) is the threshold for receiving benefits for persons with disabilities; it is not proof of an injury. It covers seven categories (vision, hearing, speech, limb, intellectual, mental and multiple disabilities), each with grades one to four. The process is application, acceptance, assessment at a designated institution, public notice, review and approval, and issuance; the certificate is valid for ten years and is renewed free when it expires. If you don't qualify, you don't qualify; this is not something knowing the right person can arrange.

Slipping money in beforehand does not buy priority: appointments, beds, scarce drugs and surgery scheduling may not be traded for favors. If afterward you want to thank the doctor who saved your life, you can, but don't give liquor, cigarettes or a red envelope with cash (红包); if he takes it, he is breaking the rules. There are three ways of thanking that really reach him: fill in the satisfaction survey carefully, write a thank-you letter naming him or send a pennant (锦旗), and go to your follow-up visits as ordered.

After the group price cuts on dental implants in 2023, the total cost of a standard implant fell from an average of 15,000 (1.5万) CNY to 6000 to 7000 CNY. At tertiary public hospitals, the service fee for a single implant should in principle be no more than 4500 CNY, with the implant and the crown charged separately. Medical insurance does not reimburse implants, dentures or orthodontics, but treatments such as fillings and extractions are generally covered in most places.

If the person died in a hospital, ask the hospital that was treating them to issue the death certificate. If they died a normal death at home, go to the community health service institution (社区卫生服务机构) or the township health clinic (乡镇卫生院) for the area where they lived. Where the cause of death is clear, it is issued within one day. Deregistering the household registration, cremation, withdrawing the housing provident fund (公积金), claiming social insurance benefits, insurance claims and inheritance all need it. Once you have it, make several extra copies.

Transporting, storing, embalming, preparing and cremating a body can only be done by a funeral home (殡仪馆). The hospital morgue does not arrange funerals; at most it lets the body rest there temporarily. A funeral home generally stores a body for no more than 3 days, and you must apply for an extension to keep it longer. Cremation requires the death certificate and a cremation confirmation form. The cremation certificate issued afterward is also needed for inheritance and insurance claims.

If you have doubts about the cause of death, you must request an autopsy within 48 hours of the death. If the hospital has refrigeration, this can be extended to 7 days. An autopsy also needs the written consent of the next of kin. If they don't sign, or the matter drags past the time limit, the responsibility for an unclear cause of death falls on the side that delayed. When you request the autopsy, ask also for the medical records to be sealed. Once the body is cremated, an autopsy can never be done.

In cities, the registration must be cancelled before burial; in rural areas, within one month. Take the death certificate and the household registration booklet to the police station. If you put it off, inheritance transfers, benefit claims and withdrawing from insurance will all be held up by the person's registration status.

Transporting and storing the body, the farewell, cremation, keeping the ashes, and eco-friendly burial are all on the national list of basic items. Burial of ashes in a niche provided by a public institution is on it too. The prices of these items are set according to the rules. Nothing outside the list may be added as a new charge. Before you set out, ask which items count as basic and what the local standard is, and only then discuss anything else.

These are all price violations named in the regulations: not posting a price list, charging more than the posted price, bundling funeral goods and forcing you to buy them, and forcing you to accept another company's paid services. Splitting one item into several charges also counts as a disguised price increase. On the spot, ask first for the price list and keep the payment receipts and chat records. Complaining afterward is still in time. For pricing, go to the market regulator (市场监管); for funeral services, go to civil affairs (民政).

Intermediaries such as funeral agents, goods purchasers, planners and hosts, and information advisers must register with the county-level civil affairs department. Those that haven't registered are not in the civil affairs department's funeral service information system. Whether you can check this yourself differs from place to place; the surest way is to call the county civil affairs department. Anyone who charges fees by deception or sells the deceased's information will be dealt with according to law.

Heirs can withdraw the housing provident fund (公积金) balance. It isn't in a bank account, so it is the easiest to miss. What is left in the personal account of the pension insurance can also be inherited. If the person died of illness, the family also receives a funeral subsidy and a survivor's allowance of 3 to 24 months. If the person died of a work-related cause, the three payments under work-injury insurance are paid in addition.

After a person has died, their next of kin, for their own lawful and proper interests, can ask a platform to let them view, copy, correct or delete the deceased's personal information. If the platform refuses, it has to give its reasons. You can also sue in court. There is one exception: if the person made other arrangements while alive, such as naming an account heir or leaving a clear wish, those arrangements are followed.

If the buyer's money goes into your account first and you then pass it on to the seller, you are running a payment business. That business needs approval from the People's Bank of China (中国人民银行) and real capital of 100,000,000 (1亿) CNY. If you do it without approval, you will be shut down, the money you made is confiscated, and you are fined, with the owner and the people in charge fined separately. In serious cases there is a prison sentence. There is only one safe way: the money never goes into your account.

A website that takes money from users mostly has to get a value-added telecom business license (增值电信业务经营许可证) first, and an individual cannot apply for this license. If you only sell goods on your own site or app and do not let others open shops there, you don't need one. Neither do you if you only run a WeChat or Alipay mini program or an online store. If you should have one and don't, and you take money and open the site anyway, your income is confiscated, you are fined, and in serious cases the site is closed.

To run live streaming or game commentary, you need an Internet Culture Operation License (网络文化经营许可证) issued by the provincial culture department. The business scope on the license must state online performance. A decision comes within 20 days of acceptance, and the license is valid for 3 years. You must keep the videos you have broadcast for a full 60 days. If you open without the license, you will be ordered to stop and warned, then fined up to 30,000 (3万) CNY, and if you don't stop you go on a blacklist.

If your server is inside China, you have to file before the site opens. Filing costs nothing; you submit it through your server provider, and it generally takes a few days to a few weeks. Without a filing, you are ordered to correct it within a set time and fined 10,000 (1万) CNY, and if you don't, the site is closed. If the homepage does not show the filing number, you are fined a further 5000 to 50,000 (5万) CNY.

If you let others sell on your platform, you must first check the seller's identity, address, contact details and licenses, then register and set up a file. After the file is set up, check again at least every six months. Who the sellers are is reported to the market regulator (市场监管), and tax information is reported to the tax authority every quarter. Product and transaction records are kept for three years. If you miss any one item, you are first ordered to correct it, and if you don't, you are fined 20,000 (2万) to 100,000 (10万) CNY.

If your website lets people post or chat, you must ask for their real identity information when they sign up for the service. If they don't provide it, they can't use it. The usual way is to store the real name on the back end, let the user choose which nickname shows on the page, and verify with a mobile phone number. If you don't require real-name registration, you are first ordered to correct it. If you don't, the fine is 50,000 (5万) to 500,000 (50万) CNY, and the site may also be shut down.

A person under 16 cannot register a streaming account with you. Those 16 and older must have their identity verified and need the consent of a parent or other guardian. Tipping has three tiers: under 8 cannot tip; ages 8 to 16 need the guardian's consent; those 16 and older need the guardian's consent or verification of proof of income. If a child tips money without the guardian knowing, and the guardian asks for it back, the court will order it returned.

When someone sends an infringement notice with preliminary evidence, you must promptly delete the item, block it or cut the link, and forward the notice to the seller. If you drag your feet, you are liable together with the seller for the extra losses that result. If the seller objects, forward the objection to the other side and wait 15 days. If the other side has neither filed a complaint nor sued, restore the item.

Sending the information of users in China to machines abroad counts as exporting it. Having your server abroad does not mean the data didn't leave. To export it you must take one of four paths: a security assessment by the cyberspace administration (网信部门), certification by a professional body, signing a standard contract, or another route provided by law. You must also tell users who abroad receives the information and what it will be used for, and ask them separately about this one matter.

At least five prenatal checkups in pregnancy, plus a home visit after delivery and the checkup at 42 days postpartum, are paid for by the state. To get them, go to your community before 13 weeks of pregnancy and open a Maternal and Child Health Handbook. If you don't, these free visits are simply missed.

When an employer has paid into maternity insurance (生育保险), the medical costs of childbirth and the allowance during maternity leave come out of that fund. If your spouse has no job, the medical costs can still be reimbursed. Whether you have enough months of enrollment, and whether giving birth in another place requires registering first, are things to ask ahead of time; they can't be fixed afterward.

This certificate is required to register the baby's household registration, enroll in insurance and start school, and only the institution that delivered the baby can issue it the first time. Coming back after you leave the hospital means a separate process and more documents. For the characters in the name, first confirm that the household registration system can print them.

Once you have the Birth Medical Certificate, you can enroll the baby online without waiting for the household registration. Once enrolled, the hospital bill at discharge can be reimbursed on the spot. A newborn's hospital bill is not small, and there is a big difference between being enrolled and not.

The law gives you one month, not “whenever you have time.” The household registration holds up vaccinations, daycare and school enrollment, and getting an ID card afterward. The longer you put it off, the more documents you need to make it up.

Under a life insurance contract, a suicide within two years is not paid out, and only the refundable part of the policy is returned. It is not recognized as a work injury either, and the three payments for a work-related death are not paid at all. Debts owed come out of the estate you leave first, and your family receives only what is left. They would also bear the health cost described in (bereavement by suicide or violent death).

The documents state that primary school students should sleep 10 hours a day, middle school students 9 hours, and high school students 8 hours. Primary school morning classes generally start no earlier than 8:20, and secondary school no earlier than 8:00. In 2025 it was further required that students get at least 2 hours of physical activity every day and that students not be ranked by exam scores. If a child is chronically short of sleep, check against these rules first, and don't blame the child for dawdling first.

There is a formal system for taking leave from school. A parent or other guardian applies, and the school confirms it and reports it to the higher authority for approval. One leave lasts up to 1 year at most, and if more time is needed when it ends, a new application is made. During the leave the school has to keep the child's enrollment record, and the child comes back and picks up where they left off. The detailed rules are set by each province, so ask the school's academic affairs office or the local education bureau.

The age and education requirements for these twelve paths are all written in official documents. To work for pay you must be at least 16. To join the military, a man must be at least 18, and college graduates can be allowed up to age 24. To take the civil service exam you must be 18 to 35 and hold at least a junior-college degree (大专). Two paths, the self-study exam (自考) and starting a self-employed business (个体户), look at neither education nor age.

Military service registration (兵役登记) is a legal duty. It is not signing up to enlist, and registering does not mean you will go. A man who turns 18 that year has to finish registering online before October 31. If you don't, the county orders you to correct it within a set time, and if you still don't, you can be compelled to fulfill the service obligation and fined. If you do go, conscripts (义务兵) serve on active duty for two years.

If you sign up and then refuse to go, the consequences come in a string. You can't be hired as a civil servant, and state-owned enterprises and public institutions (事业单位) can't hire you. For two years you may not leave the country, enroll in further study, or return to school. You are also put on a list of people seriously untrustworthy in meeting their national defense duty. So “sign up first and back out if it doesn't work” is a very expensive idea.

If a current student, a graduating student, or an incoming freshman enlists, the state pays the tuition for the years of study, based on what was actually paid: up to 20000 yuan a year for junior-college and undergraduate students and up to 25000 yuan for graduate students. If tuition was low to begin with, only the amount actually paid is covered. Your enrollment record is kept for two years. There is also a special graduate-exam plan (考研专项计划) that admits only discharged college-student soldiers.

“Join the army and get a job assigned” is long since not the general rule. Today the government arranges a job in only six situations, and most conscripts who serve two years and are discharged are not in those six. The group not assigned jobs by the government is called self-arranged employment (自主就业), and it has a hard deadline: you must report within 30 days after leaving active duty. If you go past 30 days without a proper reason, it counts as giving up the placement benefits.

After discharge there are three sums to know. The first is the one-time discharge payment (退役金) for self-arranged employment, paid by the number of years served on active duty, with extra for those who earned merit awards. The second is that the years in the army don't count as a gap in social insurance: military service years count as work years, and contribution years are added together with those before enlisting and after discharge. The third is tax: if you open your own shop or business, you can pay up to 20000 yuan less in tax each year for 3 years.

There is more than one way into the government system (体制内). If you finish two years in a grassroots service program such as the Three Supports and One Assistance program (三支一扶) and pass the evaluation, you can apply for a targeted recruitment plan open only to people like you. Each province sets aside about 10% of its yearly civil service recruitment plan to hire these people. If you take the graduate school entrance exam (考研) within three years, 10 points are added to the first-round total score. The cost is that for these two years you live on a government subsidy.

The Special-Post Teacher Program (特岗计划) is one of the few paths that states “permanent staffing at the end of the term” (入编, getting an official establishment post). The requirements are a bachelor's degree or above, mainly in teacher-training majors, an age of no more than 30, and the right teacher certificate. The term of service is three years, and during those three years pay and benefits are the same as those of permanently staffed teachers at local public schools. If you pass the evaluation after three years and want to stay, the document requires that you be given permanent staffing promptly.

Neither of these paths requires the “junior college or above” bar. Firefighters are recruited from people aged 18 to 22 with a high school education or above, and the age limit can be relaxed to 24 for those with a junior-college degree or above and for discharged soldiers. Military civilian staff (军队文职) only need to be 18 or older, and for entry-level posts the upper age limit at first hiring is 35. The shared cost is that political screening and the medical exam weed people out.

If you didn't get to finish school at 18, there are three more regular routes: the self-study exam (自考), the adult college entrance exam (成人高考) and the Open University (开放大学). The self-study exam has no age limit and doesn't look at how far you got in school, but full-time enrolled students can't register. The adult college entrance exam requires a high school or junior-college diploma first. All three routes are slow, but none of them looks at how you did at 18.

Not working for an employer doesn't mean social insurance is out of the picture; it's just that no one pays the other half for you. The document requires every place to lift the household registration (户籍) limits on flexible workers (灵活就业人员) joining insurance where they work, and a few very large cities may lift them gradually. So don't take “freedom” to mean you can ignore social insurance. If you stop paying, your pension and medical reimbursement will be calculated under the rules for interrupted contributions.

For food delivery riders, ride-hailing drivers and local freight drivers, the platform pays the occupational injury protection fee (职业伤害保障费) for each order, and you pay nothing yourself: each order you take is covered for that order. This is still a pilot, so before you take orders, check whether your province and platform are included. If you already have an employment relationship with the platform, you go through work-injury insurance (工伤保险) instead of this scheme.

In both paths the state pays up front, and after graduation you work for 6 years at a designated place under the agreement. Publicly funded normal students (公费师范生) are recruited only at six teacher-training universities directly under the Ministry of Education (教育部), in the early admission batch. Targeted medical students (定向医学生) must sign a three-party agreement before they receive the admission notice. If you break the agreement, you have to repay the money and pay a penalty, and it goes into your credit record. Be sure you can accept the 6 years before you fill out the application.

On working abroad, the law regulates not you but the company that arranges your trip. Only an enterprise that has obtained a certificate of qualification for overseas labor cooperation (对外劳务合作经营资格证书) and has registered can do this. If you hear “go on a tourist visa first and switch to a work visa later,” that sentence itself shows the other side is breaking the law. A company also may not take a deposit from you under any name, or ask you to put up property as a guarantee.

Whether this money counts as domestic or foreign depends on where you do the work, not where the money is sent from. If you are in China working remotely for an overseas company, it counts as domestic income, and income tax is due in China. If the overseas company has no office in China, no one withholds the tax for you, and you have to report it yourself. The money is remitted in under “employee compensation” (职工报酬).

If you must borrow to get started, look first at this loan, which has an interest subsidy from the government. An individual can borrow up to CNY 300,000 (30万元) for up to 3 years, and the government pays half of the interest for you. One hard condition is often overlooked: when you apply, neither you nor your spouse may have other loans, and the only ones that don't count are student loans, small loans for people lifted out of poverty (脱贫人口小额信贷), mortgages, car loans, and small consumer loans under CNY 50,000 (5万元).

If you want to use the diploma after returning to China to take the civil service exam, join a state-owned company, get a household registration (落户) or apply for a professional title, it first has to go through authentication. The authentication is done by the Study Abroad Service Center of the Ministry of Education (教育部留学服务中心, 留服中心). If the school isn't on the list of schools that can be authenticated, the tuition and time are wasted, and the diploma can't be used in China. Checking the list is free. Check it first, then pay tuition.

The United States had planned to change F-1 status to a maximum of four years, with departure within 30 days of finishing. The day before it was to take effect, a federal court put it on hold. So for now the old rule still applies: you can stay as long as the program lasts, and after finishing you have 60 days to prepare to leave. A hold is not a repeal, the government can still appeal, and the rule could change again at any time.

All four countries set an upper limit on how many hours a student visa holder may work. Going over is a violation of the visa conditions, and you may have the visa canceled and be sent home, and later applications will also be questioned. The limits are: the U.S., 20 hours a week; the U.K., 20 hours a week for a degree course and 10 hours for below degree level; Canada, 24 hours a week; Australia, 48 hours per two weeks. If you hold two jobs, the hours are added together.

Whether you may work depends on whether you are currently studying full time. Once you take a leave, drop out, are expelled, or are not in class during a transfer, your right to work ends on the spot. If you keep working then, it is illegal work. Many people think they are fine as long as the visa hasn't expired, but their status has already been broken.

If you change where you live in the United States, the law requires you to notify the immigration authorities within 10 days. Not reporting is no small matter. First, it is itself against the law. Second, letters the immigration authorities send you can get lost.

The Ministry of Education (教育部) issues alerts for particular countries or regions, saying that recent public safety or policy there is unfavorable to Chinese students. These are officially published risk notices that you can look up in black and white, more reliable than what an agent says. Looking costs nothing.

Australia writes international students' health insurance into the visa conditions; it is not optional. The insurance has to cover the whole period of stay. When you renew and switch policies, there can be no gap in between. If you can't show proof of insurance on entry, you may be refused entry on the spot. If family members come along to accompany you, each one has to buy a separate policy.

Going to the U.K. costs more than the visa fee. You also pay the health surcharge in advance for the number of years of the visa, and only then can you use the National Health Service (国民医疗服务, NHS). For a two-year visa you pay £1552 at once. Together with the visa fee, this has to be paid in full before you leave, so don't leave it out of your budget.

To use a foreign degree back in China, you first have to have the diploma and degree authenticated. The review alone takes 10 to 20 working days. In the job-hunting season, or if your materials are sent back, it takes longer. Autumn recruitment, civil service exam registration and household registration (落户) all have deadlines, so don't wait until you need it to start.

The Study Abroad Service Center (留服中心) names a group of foreign schools whose degree authentication gets separate, stricter review, and it also suspends accepting authentication applications for a few schools. The ones named are often the kind advertised as “no language test, no need to leave China, a master's in a few months.” Searching the school's name once before you sign up is far easier than appealing afterward.

A word from family or an employer can't keep a person in a psychiatric hospital. The law recognizes only two situations: the person has already harmed themselves or is in danger of doing so, or has already harmed others or is in danger of doing so. For the first, the guardian's consent is needed before the person can be admitted. If you disagree with the diagnosis, you can ask for a second diagnosis within three days, and after that you can commission an assessment yourself.

The disability certificate (残疾人证) itself pays no money; it is a key. Behind it are several separate benefits, each of which you have to apply for yourself, and none of which comes to your door automatically. On the first visit to the Disabled Persons' Federation (残联), ask about the items on its list one by one, which saves you running back and forth several times.

The state has built a rehabilitation assistance system for disabled children and children with autism aged 0 to 6, covering surgery, assistive devices and rehabilitation training. Assistance goes first to families in difficulty, and where local finances allow, the age and family-income conditions can be relaxed. This stretch is the window when rehabilitation works best, so don't put it off until school age. The facility must be chosen from the Disabled Persons' Federation's list of designated providers.

The Barrier-Free Environment Construction Law (《无障碍环境建设法》) has a provision: governments at county level or above should support and guide barrier-free modification of home facilities and should give suitable subsidies to qualifying households with disabled or older members. These projects are generally led by the Disabled Persons' Federation (残联) and run with a yearly quota, so register early. How much is paid and which modifications are covered are set by each locality.

The share of disabled employees an employer arranges to hire may not be lower than 1.5% of its total staff, with the exact share set by the province. If it falls short, the employer has to pay a disability employment security fund (残疾人就业保障金) based on the shortfall in headcount, with each missing person calculated at the employer's average annual wage for the previous year. So hiring you is not only a kindness, it is real money saved. In the interview, make clear that you hold the certificate, and the employer can work out this sum for itself.

The Individual Income Tax Law (个人所得税法) says the income of disabled people may receive a reduction in income tax. But how much and for how long are left by the law to provincial governments, so it differs from province to province. Some provinces set a yearly reduction limit, and some reduce by a percentage. To find out, call 12366 (China's tax service hotline) to ask the local tax bureau, or look for the reduction item in the Individual Income Tax app.

The law states that public places and public transport must provide convenience for disabled people who bring guide dogs, hearing dogs or assistance dogs. Blind people ride city buses, subways and ferries free with a valid certificate, and disabled people can bring along the assistive devices they need at no charge. If you are stopped, cite these two points, and if that doesn't work, file a complaint.

Disabled candidates in the college entrance exam can apply for a Braille paper, a large-print paper, exemption from the foreign-language listening section, a separate exam room, hearing aids and wheelchairs in the room, and extended exam time. These are not given automatically: you must submit a written application by the date set by your province, with a second-generation or later disability certificate attached. If you disagree with the result, you can apply to the provincial department of education for a review.

Kindergartens and schools of all kinds may not refuse admission to a disabled child who meets the conditions, and the same goes for regular vocational schools. For a child who needs a dedicated caregiver and can't get to school, the county education bureau arranges teaching at home (送教上门) or remote classes, and the child still has an enrollment record. Admission and transfer are decided by the education bureau after an expert committee's assessment, not by the school alone.

A person whose right lower limb or both lower limbs are missing or can't move, but who can sit steadily on their own and has enough upper-limb ability, can take the test for a small automatic-transmission car for disabled drivers, class code C5. A person missing one palm can also apply. People with vision impairment in one eye or hearing impairment each have vehicle classes they can test for. The medical exam must be done at a specialized hospital designated by the province.

Whether an adult has “no civil capacity” or “limited civil capacity” can be decided only by a court. Family members, an employer or the residents' committee (居委会) can't decide on their own. An interested party or a relevant organization has to apply to the court. In the other direction, if intellectual or mental health recovers, an application can also be made for a determination that the person has regained capacity. This procedure is both a restriction and a protection.

After an adult loses capacity, the guardian is chosen in order: the spouse, then parents and children, then other close relatives, and last any other person or organization willing to serve. If there is a dispute, the residents' committee (居委会), villagers' committee (村委会) or civil affairs department (民政部门) makes the appointment, and anyone who disagrees can go to the court. While still clear-minded, a person can name a future guardian in writing. If the person under guardianship injures others, the guardian pays.

The law forbids discrimination against disabled people in hiring, regularization, promotion, professional titles, pay and social insurance. You can file a complaint with the responsible authority, or sue in court. But even if you win, the other side does not pay your lawyer's fees. So complain first, apply for legal aid (法律援助) at the same time, and only then consider a lawsuit.