How to Verify a Chinese Supplier's Business License

Yes. Ask the supplier for a photo of their business license (营业执照), then check the 18-digit Unified Social Credit Code on it against China's official company registry at gsxt.gov.cn, free, about ten minutes. You are checking four things: the registered name matches your contract and bank account, the status shows the company is active, the business scope covers what they claim to do, and there are no abnormal-operation or penalty records.

Sourcing disasters start as paperwork problems: a "factory" that is a trading company with a rented office, a supplier deregistered two years ago, a certificate borrowed from another entity. All of it shows up on the registry first.

A sourcing agent like CN Ally runs these checks as routine. This guide covers every license field, searching the government database without reading Chinese, reading the results, and the red flags that mean walk away.

What a Chinese business license shows

The direct answer: a Chinese business license is a one-page document proving a company exists as a legal entity, issued by the local Administration for Market Regulation. The Unified Social Credit Code dominates the page; everything else is detail around it.

Field · Chinese label · Why it matters to you

• Unified Social Credit Code: 统一社会信用代码 · The 18-character national ID of the company. This is the key you search on the registry.
• Company name: 名称 · The legal name in Chinese. Must match your contract, invoice, and bank account exactly.
• Company type: 类型 · Limited liability company (有限责任公司) is the normal form for suppliers.
• Legal representative: 法定代表人 · The individual legally responsible for the company.
• Business scope: 经营范围 · What the company is legally allowed to do. A "factory" whose scope mentions only trading is not a factory.
• Registered capital: 注册资本 · Subscribed capital, not cash in the bank. Read it with the caveats below.
• Date of establishment: 成立日期 · A supplier claiming 15 years of history but incorporated last year is lying.
• Registered address: 住所 · Compare it against where the supplier says their factory is.
• QR code: bottom-right corner · Scanning it should take you straight to that company's record on the government registry.

A license alone proves the company is (or was) registered. It does not prove it manufactures anything, exports anything, or is financially healthy: a birth certificate, not a character reference. The real value comes when you take the code off the license and look up the company's current registry record.

The 18-digit code: the single field that matters most

Every Chinese company carries an 18-character Unified Social Credit Code, defined under the national standard GB 32100-2015. It replaced the older patchwork of separate registration, tax, and organization numbers: one company, one code, used across tax, customs, banking, and courts.

For verification, one rule matters: copy it exactly. You do not need to decode the structure. A single wrong character returns no result or, worse, a different company, and you will draw conclusions about the wrong business. One structural detail is worth knowing anyway: characters three through eight are the administrative region code, so a "Guangdong manufacturer" whose code points to another province has explaining to do.

A blurry code photo, or a code that looks pasted over, is a refusal in disguise. A legitimate supplier has no reason to hide the number designed to be looked up.

How to check a supplier on China's official registry, step by step

The direct answer: search the 18-digit code or the company's Chinese legal name on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System at gsxt.gov.cn, run by the State Administration for Market Regulation. It is free, works from outside China, and is entirely in Chinese.

Step 1: Get the license and the Chinese legal name. Ask for a clear license photo and, separately, the company's full legal name in Chinese characters. English names on Alibaba are unofficial translations; the Chinese name is unique. The name on the license, in your contract, and on the bank account you pay must match character for character.

Step 2: Search the portal. Paste the 18-digit code or Chinese name into the search box on the portal homepage, then complete the verification puzzle. If the national site is slow from overseas, use the provincial mirror for the company's province; same dataset, often faster.

Step 3: Check the basics on the company record. The record shows name, code, legal representative, capital, establishment date, address, scope, and status. Confirm the name matches the license photo, the status reads active, and read the business scope carefully.

Step 4: Check the abnormal-operations and penalty records. Most buyers skip this, and it catches the most problems. The registry shows whether a company sits on the abnormal operations list (经营异常名录) or the serious violations list (严重违法失信), plus administrative penalties. Check these tabs even when the front page looks clean; a valid license and a regulatory flag can coexist.

Step 5: Cross-check the bank account name. Before paying, get the bank account details for the wire transfer. The account holder must be the registered company name, exactly. Payments to a personal account or a differently named company are among the most common features of sourcing fraud.

If the Chinese interface defeats you, Tianyancha (天眼查) and Qichacha (企查查) compile the same public data with friendlier interfaces, including WeChat mini-programs, plus extras like lawsuit records. Full access often needs a Chinese phone number and their data can lag, so the government site wins when records disagree.

Reading the result: the status codes that decide everything

The direct answer: read the registration status first, because everything else is commentary if the company is not legally operating. Terms vary slightly by region, as CJO GLOBAL's registry walkthrough notes, but the core set is consistent.

Status · Chinese · What it means for you

• Active / continuing: 存续 or 在营/开业 · The company is legally operating. The only status you want to see.
• Revoked: 吊销 · The license was revoked by the authorities, usually as a penalty. Do not do business here.
• Deregistered / cancelled: 注销 · The company has been formally closed. Anyone operating under this name is trading on a dead registration.
• Moved in / moved out: 迁入 / 迁出 · The registration moved between jurisdictions. Verify the current record at the new authority.
• In liquidation: 清算 · The company is being wound up. Walk away.

Two list-based flags matter as much as the status. The abnormal operations list (经营异常名录) catches failures like unfiled annual reports or an unreachable registered address. It does not prove fraud, but the authorities distrust the company's disclosures, so demand an explanation. The serious violations list (严重违法失信) reflects significant breaches of trust or legal violations: treat a listing there as disqualifying.

Administrative penalties (行政处罚) are recorded separately. A labeling fine from five years ago is background noise; a recent counterfeit-production penalty, or a pattern of repeat penalties, tells you how the company actually operates.

Ten red flags worth walking away over

Not every imperfection is fatal, but some patterns are so strongly associated with fraud that the rational move is to stop.

1. The supplier refuses to send the license. The license is public information anyone can look up free. There is no legitimate reason to withhold it; refusal is disqualifying.
2. The license name does not match the name you are asked to pay. Contract says one company, invoice says another, bank account belongs to a third. Money must go to the registered legal entity, full stop.
3. The status is anything other than active. Revoked, deregistered, in liquidation: these are not paperwork delays. The company is not legally operating.
4. The company is on the serious violations list. This is the registry telling you, in official language, that the company has a record of significant breaches. Believe it.
5. The establishment date contradicts the sales pitch. "Twenty years of manufacturing experience" from a company incorporated eighteen months ago means the experience belongs to someone else, or to nobody.
6. The business scope has no manufacturing in it. A scope reading only trading, wholesale, or import/export, with no production (生产) or manufacturing (制造), means a trading company. Legitimate traders exist, but it is a lie if they posed as the factory.
7. The registered capital is trivial for the claimed scale. A "factory with 300 workers and its own mold shop" capitalized at 100,000 RMB does not add up. Real manufacturing ties up far more capital.
8. The QR code does not resolve correctly. Scan it. It should open that company's record on the government registry. A QR code that leads nowhere, or to a different company's record, strongly suggests the license image was doctored.
9. Certificates are issued to a different entity. Test reports and certifications belong to a specific legal entity. If the CE certificate names a different company than the license and the contract, the certificate does not cover your supplier, whatever the sales rep says about "sister companies."
10. The record was recently and radically changed. A sudden simultaneous change of legal representative, shareholders, and registered address can indicate the company was bought as a shell. One change is administration. All of them at once is a story.

None of these needs more than a few Chinese terms and ten minutes before money moves.

Why a clean license is necessary but not enough

The license check verifies existence, not competence or honesty. A company can hold a perfectly valid license and still ship the wrong product or vanish with your deposit. Knowing what the license cannot tell you separates buyers burned once from buyers burned repeatedly.

The biggest misunderstanding is registered capital. Since the company law reforms effective March 1, 2014, China uses a subscribed capital system: the figure is what shareholders committed to contribute, on their own timetable, not cash paid in. Minimum thresholds are largely gone, and capital verification is no longer mandatory for most industries. A 10-million-RMB figure says almost nothing about money actually in the company: a weak signal, never a guarantee.

The business scope has a subtler limit: it describes what the company may do, not what it does well, or at all. A scope including "manufacturing of electronic products" fits a factory claim, but equally fits a trading company that added manufacturing for flexibility. The scope filters out liars; it does not identify good manufacturers. That takes evidence of production, and ultimately a factory audit by someone physically present.

Finally, the license says nothing about export capability. A domestic company can hold a valid license with no legal standing to export; that comes through separate customs registrations, and some product categories need their own export licenses. The license answers "does this company exist." The next section answers "can it do what I need."

The checks to run after the license

Think of verification as layers. The license is the outermost: fast, free, and it eliminates the obvious frauds. Each layer beneath costs a little more time or money and catches a subtler class of problem.

Check · What it verifies · How to run it

• Customs registration: The company can legally declare exports · Ask for the customs registration certificate with its 10-digit customs code
• Export license (restricted goods): Product-specific permission for regulated categories · Ask whether the product needs a MOFCOM export license, and ask to see it
• Certificate entity match: Test reports actually belong to your supplier · Check the company name on every certificate against the license name
• Lawsuit and shareholder history: The company's legal and ownership background · Search Tianyancha or Qichacha for litigation and ownership changes
• VAT invoice cross-check: The company is a real tax-paying entity · Ask for a sample VAT invoice; name and tax number must match the registry
• Factory audit: The factory exists and can produce your goods · Commission an on-site or video audit before the first production order

Two deserve emphasis. The certificate entity match catches the most common trading-company trick: genuine certificates, belonging to a genuine manufacturer, presented by a company that is neither. Always read the name on the certificate, not the logo on the cover. And the audit is the only check that verifies physical reality. Paperwork can be rented and Photoshopped; a production floor with workers and machines cannot be faked on a live video call. For a first order above a few thousand dollars, the audit is the purchase.

Frequently asked questions

Can I verify a Chinese business license if I do not read Chinese?

Yes, with minor friction. The record layout is consistent, browser translation handles the labels, and you only need a handful of terms, such as 存续 for active status and 经营异常 for abnormal operations. Tianyancha and Qichacha offer friendlier interfaces, and a sourcing agent can run the official check in minutes.

What should I do if a supplier refuses to send their business license?

Stop dealing with them. The license is public information, so there is no legitimate reason to withhold it. Refusal usually means the company does not exist under that name, the license would contradict the sales pitch, or an intermediary is hiding the real entity.

Does a verified supplier on Alibaba still need this check?

Yes. Marketplace verification confirms a license was presented to the platform at some point, not that it belongs to the company you are dealing with today, or that the account is operated by that company. Rented accounts and purchased storefronts are real. The registry check verifies the legal entity behind the storefront, which the platform badge cannot guarantee.

How current is the information on gsxt.gov.cn?

The registry is authoritative, but updates follow administrative timelines, not real time. A shareholder transfer completed last week may not appear yet, and commercial databases lag further. For time-sensitive decisions, get the supplier's latest documents and compare them against the registry.

Can a trading company be a legitimate supplier?

Absolutely. Many experienced buyers prefer good traders for small or mixed orders. The problem is traders pretending to be factories. A trader adds margin but can consolidate shipments, handle export paperwork, and manage quality across workshops. Verify the license to know which you are dealing with, then judge on references, responsiveness, and transparency about factory relationships.

A five-minute rule before you send any money

Do not wire a deposit until you can answer five questions with documents, not assurances. What is the company's exact Chinese legal name, and does it match the contract, invoice, and bank account? Does the registry show it as active, with no abnormal-operation or serious-violation records? Does the scope cover manufacturing of your product, if a factory is what you were promised? Do the certificates name this same entity? Has someone independent confirmed the factory physically exists, on live video or an on-site quality control visit tied to written specifications?

Five yeses means you did the diligence most burned buyers skipped. Any no, or "the supplier said not to worry about it," means stop. Thousands of legitimate manufacturers exist in China; no order is urgent enough to pay an unverified one. To have the full verification stack run for you, from registry checks to on-site audits, write to hi@cnally.com.