A public accountant works for a public accounting firm that performs auditing, tax, consulting and accounting services for other businesses, organizations or individuals, while a private accountant has an accounting function within a firm or more general organization. This study examines the factors that influence accounting students’ intention to become public accountant in China. Scholars have recognized the essential role played by accounting professionals in facilitating China’s economic transformation and development (Chen, 2012; Jui & Wong, 2015). According to the Chinese Institute of Certified Public Accountant (CICPA, 2016), there are 101,376 certified public accountants (CPAs) and 8,374 accounting firms in China, serving more than 1.3 billion people by the end of 2015 while there is a demand of at least 350,000 CPAs. In contrast, in the United States, there are 664,532 actively licensed CPAs, and 95,792 accounting firms, serving over 300 million people in 2016 (NASBA, 2016; IBISWorld, 2016). China still faces a serious shortage of CPAs, compared to the United States. In addition, it seems that accounting majors in China are not enthusiastic about choosing public accounting career. Jiang (2012) surveys 150 undergraduate accounting students at a Chinese university and finds that 59% of respondents have internship experiences in three types of CPA firms (Big Four, Non-Big Four, and Chinese domestic CPA firms). In Jiang’s study, 51.5% of 136 respondents prefer to choose a private accounting career. Accounting students in Jiang’s study are not interested in choosing public accounting even though almost two thirds of respondents have some kind of public accounting internship experiences. In our study, only 31 out of 163 respondents (19% of respondents) prefer to choose a public accounting career. However, Bagley et al. (2012) survey 155 upper-level undergraduate accounting students at a large public university in U.S. and find that almost 78.1% of respondents are interested in public accounting.