Based on 683 valid questionnaires collected among a convenience sample of social workers from Hong Kong, Macau and three other cities in mainland China, this study investigated the psychometric properties of the Chinese version of the three‐item ultra‐short Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (C‐UWES‐3). The results of confirmatory factor analyses supported the discriminant validity of C‐UWES‐3 by differentiating its three items from other five items measuring emotional exhaustion and role ambiguity. The concurrent validity of C‐UWES‐3 was supported by its superior explanatory power to the original nine‐item version of the scale (C‐UWES‐9) in relation to explaining social workers' turnover intention. The convergent validity of C‐UWES‐3 was supported by its correlations vis‐à‐vis factors in the job demands‐resources model such as job demands, job resources, turnover intention and collective psychological ownership. The C‐UWES‐3 showed good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.81). Overall, the C‐UWES‐3 demonstrates excellent psychometric properties for informing future research.