The third-seeded Australian needed only 88 minutes to defeat Chinese wildcard Yunchaokete Bu 6-4 6-0 in his first Beijing outing.
After losing one of his two singles matches in a 3-2 defeat to Belgium in Sydney earlier this month, de Minaur broke Bu in the fifth game en route to taking the opening set on Friday.
The current world No.8, whose US Open hopes were ended in the quarter-finals by Canada's Felix Auger Aliassime, was even more impressive in the second set.
De Minaur fired down five aces and converted three of his five break-point opportunities to lock a 45th win of 2025, just days after helping Team World win the Laver Cup in San Francisco, without dropping a set.
The result has set the 'Demon' up with a clash against Arthur Rinderknech, a 6-4 3-6 6-4 winner over tour veteran David Goffin.
"It's been a lot recently and a lot of different beds, a lot of air miles and yeah, I'm just really happy with the level I brought today for a tough opening match," de Minaur told Tennis Australia.
"I knew I had to bring it from very first point and ultimately the goal is to just keep on bringing the energy.
"The goal is to finish the year strong because I want to prioritise Turin. A lot of recovery, a lot of hours doing the right thing has allowed me to put up a good performance today."
Elsewhere, there were victories for French duo Adrian Mannarino and Corentin Moutet, but sixth seed Andrey Rublev and Miomir Kecmanovic were beaten in straight sets.
Daniil Medvedev, the 2023 finalist, opened his campaign with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Brit Cameron Norrie.
"I had a lot of chances to break and I think I deserve to win in terms of the game plan and the stats, so I'm happy to go through," Russian Medvedev said.
"I can play much, much better than that. The way back is step by step, and this was a small step forward."
16°C