Pearce finished in a tie for 17th at the tour's first qualifying tournament at the Shenzhen Guangdong CTS Tycoon Golf Club at the weekend.
The top 20 players from the 110-strong field have been given exempt status for the inaugural Chinese offshoot of the PGA Tour, which offers a carrot of qualification for the Web.Com Tour.
Scoring was difficult at the course, with only the top five golfers breaking par over the four rounds.
Pearce started well, carding a 3-under-par 69 in his first round. He followed with 77 and two 74s to finish at 6-over-par 294 and seal his top-20 status by a shot.
Pearce, the 2003 New Zealand Open champion, has played plenty of golf in Asia and should be confident of performing well when the Chinese tour starts next month.
The best of the other New Zealanders at the first Q-school was Waikato's Mathew Perry. He finished at 4-under to tie for third.
Pieter Zwart (80th) and Kelvin Jones (103rd) missed out.
The winner of the tournament was Australian David Lutterus, who has 48 PGA Tour starts.
Lutterus had a seven-shot lead heading into the final round and was able to cruise through a par round to 11-under and win by four shots. American Benjamin Lein was second.
The final PGA Tour of China qualifying tournament starts later this week at Mission Hills Golf Club's Sandbelt Trails Course in Haikou.
Mission Hills also hosts the first full tournament, starting April 14. There are five other events on the schedule.
