Tabitha Chawinga was on target in Jiangsu Suning's 3-2 win over Hebei China Fortune in a Chinese Women's Super League opener at the Kunming Haigeng Sports Training Base on Sunday.
The Malawi international was instrumental in Jiangsu's title success last season, scoring 12 goals in 14 league outings to claim the golden boot, and also retained the CWSL Player of the Year gong.
The Nanjing-based outfit continued from where they left off the last campaign as defender Wang Xiaoxue opened the scoring for the champions with a fine header.
The holders doubled the lead moment later when Ni Mengjie's struck a delightful solo goal for the second of the match.
Before the half-time break, Chawinga made superb turn before making a brilliant finish to open her 2020 goal account and net the third of the match for Jiangsu.
Having gained a significant three-goal lead, Jiangsu withdrew Chawinga and almost paid dearly for it when midfielder Huang Rui pulled one back for the newcomers moments after the restart.
Hebei went on to further reduce the deficit when Geng Yiming scored from the penalty spot, but Jiangsu eventually held on to claim maximum points in their opening match of the season.
Chawinga, who was in action for the first 45 minutes of the match for Jiangsu, has now scored one goal from her first game in 2020.
The result saw Jiangsu opened the season in the third position after their opener and they will aim to continue their winning start against Henan Jianye in their next league fixture on Wednesday.
