The Australian, who also has a grand slam to her name having lifted the 2011 US Open, is the pick of the competitors in Guangzhou as the only member of the top-20 in the world rankings.
And she will be confident of prevailing in the field of 32 players, especially with home wildcard Yafan Wang awaiting in round one.
However, the tournament's 10-year history suggests there is reason to be wary given Chinese players have emerged triumphant three times.
That includes last time out when Zhang Shuai took the crown, following in the footsteps of Li Na and Yan Zi - who won in 2004 and 2005.
On that occasion, Zhang overcame Vania King in the final in straight sets, comfortably winning both 6-1.
There are also plenty of other dangerous competitors in this year's event, with Alize Cornet, Sloane Stephens, Bojana Jovanovski, Zarina Diyas and Roberta Vinci all in the world's top 50.
Cornet, a two-time winner on the circuit, will face Yulia Putintseva, while Stephens will begin her pursuit of a maiden WTA title with a tricky test against world number 70 Silvia Soler-Espinosa.
Jovanovski meets Monica Niculescu, Diyas tackles Lei Zhang and Vinci faces Lin Zhu.
Seventh and eighth seeds Jana Cepelova and Annika Beck have been drawn against Zhang Kailin and Maria-Teresa Torro Flor respectively.
Sorana Cirstea faces Petra Martic, Alison Riske battles Johanna Larsson, Katarzyna Piter challenges Japan's Misaki Doi and Monica Puig clashes with Karin Knapp.
The first-round ties also include Patricia Mayr-Achleitner's match versus Yi-Fan Xu, Timea Bacsinszky's meeting with Magda Linette, Alison Van Uytvanck's game against Su-Wei Hsieh, and Shahar Peer's contest with Pauline Parmentier.