They were starting to focus on this before COVID. This has alot more to do with tax evasion than anything else.
If you do not have a work visa, then technically you do not pay any tax in China.
Way back, we used to do fly in fly out into China, on a 6 and 2, or 8 and 2 roster (8 weeks on, 2 weeks off). We didn't apply for any work visa, just the standard multiple entry business visa that lets us stay 90 days at a time. No one asked, and no one checked. We ended up paying no taxes to China, while working there. (We only paid tax to our home country). Technically they should have paid around 500,000 - 600,000 RMB per year each in taxes, but paid none. Plenty of other companies did the same thing, and you can see how much personal income taxes China missed out on collecting.
The guys I work for now are far more by the books, and made us get the work visa and paid the local taxes. Just as well since from around 2018, the guys at the airport asked what I was doing in China, and if I was working, I should apply for the work visa.
The work visas were massive efforts, harder than any other country in my experience, costly too for the certification parts. Aside from the standard forms, it asks for certified degree certs translated into Chinese & stamped at your local consulate, work experience in the field they are employing you for, non criminal record certs stamped by the consulate, a full medical health examination (for things like syphilis, amongst electrocardiogram & other blood test etc) as well as employment contract with your wages etc. After all that, you gotta get your work permit in your local police office, then convert your Z visa your foreign residence permit. (The only part I like was on my card it said foreign expert haha).
You can see in that step that they find out how much you get paid and how much tax you should file. At the end of the year, you also fill out another tax form for foreigners, that shows how many days you lived in China for that year, and how many years in total. (Then you get the tax returns)
Its going to filter out alot of garbage, since most of the garbage won't meet the criteria for work visas. The guys that passes through the filter should at least be qualified for the job. If you did things by the books then you have absolutely nothing to be worried about. Chinese taxes aint that much higher anyway, unless you live in Texas or Hong Kong. You hit 45% for earnings above 960,000 RMB, that won't be likely for english teachers lol. Its a tier system going from 3% to 10% to 20% to 25% to 30% to 35% to 45%, kind of right in between Japan and Australia for the high income tiers. (200k US +)
