Verifying a Chinese company takes three things, in this order: the registered Chinese name with its 18-digit unified social credit code, the business licence, and proof the company has actually exported. The first two show the entity exists and what it may legally do. The third is the check most buyers skip, and the one that exposes a shell. Here is how to verify a supplier in China from the registry, the licence and shipment records, and what each cannot tell you.
The short version
- Legal identity is the Chinese name plus the 18-character unified social credit code. The English name on the quotation has no registered status.
- Three licence fields matter most: scope of business, registered versus paid-in capital, legal representative.
- No import-export wording in the scope of business means the company cannot export in its own name. It uses an agent. Ask which one.
- The bank beneficiary must be the registered Chinese legal name. A different entity, or a new account mid-contract, is the costliest red flag in China sourcing.
- Registration proves existence. Only the shipment record shows whether the company trades, for whom, how recently.
How to verify a supplier in China
Get the registered Chinese name and 18-digit unified social credit code, look both up in the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System at gsxt.gov.cn, confirm the status is active and the scope of business covers export, match the bank account name to the legal name, then check the shipment history.
In practice, seven steps:
- Get the registered Chinese name and the 18-digit code. Not the English trading name. Ask for a licence scan.
- Look the code up in the registry. gsxt.gov.cn, run by the State Administration for Market Regulation. Status should read active (存续 / 在营), not deregistered (注销) or revoked (吊销).
- Read the scope of business. No import-export wording, no exporting in its own name.
- Check the customs registration. Exporters filing their own declarations hold a customs registration code, published with their credit status at credit.customs.gov.cn.
- Cross-check the licence against the sales story. Legal representative, registered address, establishment date, business term.
- Match the bank beneficiary to the legal name. No personal accounts, no differently named entity.
- Check the shipment record. Does this company export, for how many distinct buyers, how recently.
The 18-digit unified social credit code
Since GB 32100-2015 took effect on 1 October 2015, every registered entity in mainland China carries one unified social credit code of 18 characters, administered under the State Administration for Market Regulation with the tax authority. It replaced the old split between business registration, organisation code and tax numbers. China company verification starts with that code, because it is the key to the registry.
The code is structured, not random. First character: registering authority. Second: category of entity. Next six: the administrative division code of the place of registration. Then nine identifying the entity, then a check digit. That division code should match the city the company claims. Search by code or exact Chinese name and the registry returns status, legal representative, registered address, scope of business, establishment date, shareholders with subscribed and paid-in contributions, administrative penalties, and whether the company sits on the abnormal operations list for missed filings or for being unreachable at its registered address. Search is free, Chinese-only, and unreliable from outside the mainland. Every current licence carries a QR code resolving to the same record, so scan that rather than trust the layout of a PDF.
A business licence proves a company exists. It does not prove the company has ever shipped anything.
How to check a Chinese business licence
The licence shows the Chinese name, entity type, domicile, legal representative, registered capital, establishment date, business term, scope of business, the unified social credit code and the issuing authority. Three fields repay close reading, and one decides whether the company can export at all.
Scope of business (经营范围). The operative field. A company may only do what is listed, and exporters in their own name carry wording about engaging in import and export of goods and technology. A factory whose scope covers production and processing only cannot file its own export declaration. Not sinister: plenty of good factories export through an agent. It changes who your counterparty is: the shipper on the bill of lading and the entity invoicing you may be a trading company you never assessed. Ask for the agent's licence too. Since the Foreign Trade Law was amended on 30 December 2022 trading rights come automatically, with no separate record-filing at commerce authorities, but customs registration is still needed to declare goods.
Registered capital (注册资本). Weaker than buyers assume. Minimum capital requirements went with the 2013 Company Law amendment, and for years capital could be subscribed and never paid. Under the Company Law in force from 1 July 2024, shareholders of a limited liability company must pay subscribed capital in full within five years of establishment; companies formed earlier have until 30 June 2027 to bring their schedules inside that window. Compare subscribed against paid-in on the registry.
Legal representative (法定代表人). One individual who can bind the company. If somebody else signs, get an authorisation letter. The company chop outweighs any signature: a document stamped with the official chop binds the company, and that chop carries the registered Chinese name.
Trading company or factory?
Neither is bad. Trading companies handle paperwork, consolidation and financing small plants cannot. The risk is paying factory prices to a middleman, or one with no real relationship with the plant.
| Signal | Points to a factory | Points to a trading company |
|---|---|---|
| Scope of business | Production or processing of named products | Wholesale, retail, trade, import and export, long unrelated list |
| Registered name | Industry word: machinery, electronics, industrial | Trading, international trade, import and export, supply chain |
| Registered address | Plant in an industrial park or development zone | Suite or floor number in an office building |
| Shipment records | Narrow, consistent band of HS codes | Many unrelated HS codes |
| Certificates and test reports | Name a site and entity matching your invoice | Belong to another entity, or cover an address not theirs |
| Export documents | Named as shipper on the bill of lading | Named as shipper while the maker is an entity they will not identify |
One test costs nothing: ask for a video call from the line now, walking to the loading bay. A trading company offers next week.
The English name is a nickname. The bank account is not.
Mainland companies are registered in Chinese characters. The English name on the letterhead is self-chosen and is not the registered legal identity. Two suppliers can use near-identical English names while their licences describe unrelated entities in different provinces. Contracts, invoices and payment instructions should carry the Chinese legal name and the unified social credit code, because those are what a Chinese bank or court recognises.
That is where money goes missing. The beneficiary name on your transfer should be the registered Chinese legal name. When an invoice arrives naming a different company, a personal account, or a fresh account in another jurisdiction, treat the thread as compromised: changed bank details mid-contract are among the most common ways buyers lose deposits. If payment really must route to a third party, get a letter saying so in Chinese, stamped with the company chop, confirmed on a number you already had.
If the beneficiary name is not the registered legal name, you are not paying your supplier. You are paying someone else.
Does the company actually export?
Everything above is registration: the company was formed, is in good standing and may trade. It says nothing about whether it has put a container on a ship. That gets answered on the import side, because China's own authorities do not publish shipment-level export data for public search.
Import-side records do exist. In the United States, inward vessel manifest information including ocean bills of lading is obtainable by the public under 19 CFR 103.31, which is why a Chinese exporter's US shipments are often traceable. Air, rail and truck manifests are not public, and any importer or consignee may request confidential treatment of its name and address, valid two years and renewable. Other markets come through licensed trade data rather than free lookups.
So read absence carefully. No record is not proof of fraud: the buyer may have filed for confidentiality, the goods may have moved by air, the exporter of record may be an agent, or the company may sell domestically. Pattern is what matters. A supplier presenting a decade of export history with zero traceable shipments anywhere has a story that does not reconcile. Ask three things of the record: how many distinct buyers, how many destination markets, how recent the last shipment. One buyer usually means a subcontractor. A last shipment 26 months ago means the business in the quotation may not be the one that exists.
How to verify a supplier in China with TradeVerify
TradeVerify scores an exporter against shipment-level trade records instead of its own marketing.
- Run the name. Enter it in English or Chinese and verify the supplier against export history, distinct buyer count, destination markets, activity recency and shipment trend, plus red-flag screens. Coverage runs to 15.7M+ companies across 240+ markets. Free to check.
- Counter-check the licence. The registry answers whether the entity exists. The record answers whether it trades. Both should agree. A sample verification report shows what a TradeScore report covers.
- Ask the supplier to stand behind it. Suppliers can claim their profile and a Verified supplier badge on the supplier side, fair to ask of anyone quoting five figures.
- Keep it in proportion. A records check evidences trade activity. It is one input in due diligence, not a fraud verdict, and no substitute for a factory audit, a chopped contract in the registered Chinese name, or inspection before final payment. TradeVerify is an independent verification service, an Onyx Labs company.
Two checks do most of the work when you verify a Chinese supplier: the registry lookup, then the shipment record. Cheap before expensive, factory audit for whoever survives. Most problem suppliers drop out in the first twenty minutes.