How do I check a supplier's business license in China?
Short Answer: Pull the Licence, Look Up the Code
Ask for the licence (营业执照) image with the 18-digit Unified Social Credit Code. Search the exact Chinese company name on gsxt.gov.cn. Confirm status reads active, the registered address matches the claimed factory location and the business scope includes your product category. Any mismatch is a problem.
What a Business Licence Actually Contains
The document a Chinese supplier calls a business licence (营业执照) is the official registration certificate issued by the local Administration for Market Regulation. Every legal entity in China holds one, including sole proprietorships, partnerships and limited companies. The full registration is also held centrally by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), and that central copy is what you are about to access.
What you should see on a clean licence image: the company name in simplified Chinese, the 18-digit Unified Social Credit Code, the legal representative, the registered capital, the company address, the date of establishment, the business scope, and a stamp from the issuing authority.
How to Verify the Licence in Seven Minutes
Request a stamped copy of the business licence.
Insist on the original scan with the red issuing-authority stamp. Screenshots from the supplier's own catalogue are not the same document.
Open the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System.
The site gsxt.gov.cn is run by SAMR. It is free, needs no registration and covers more than 180 million active entities.
Search by the exact Chinese company name.
Pinyin variants and loose translations will not match. Copy the Chinese characters off the licence image and paste them in.
Confirm the company status reads active.
An active status displays as 存续. A revoked status (吊销) or a cancelled status (注销) means the entity is no longer operating. Walk away.
Cross-check the registered address and legal representative.
Both should match the licence image and the salesperson's own statement. A mismatch usually means the supplier is hiding something.
Verify the business scope covers your product.
If the licence says import-export of textiles and you are buying electronics, that is a yellow flag, not an automatic stop, but it warrants a direct question.
Look at administrative penalties and anomalies.
The same registry shows recent regulatory penalties, abnormal operating flags and the listed shareholders. Read them. A long clean record is a useful signal.
What Other Free Lookups Add to the Picture
The national registry is the single most useful check, but it is not the only one. Together with the business licence, four more free lookups give you a fuller picture of the company you are about to pay.
| Source | What it shows | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| gsxt.gov.cn | National enterprise registry, status, address, scope, penalties | Confirms the entity is real, active and matches the licence |
| Tax credit rating (State Taxation Administration) | Grade A to D on tax compliance | Almost no overseas buyer asks for this, which is why it remains a differentiator |
| wenshu.court.gov.cn | Court judgments and dishonest-debtor list | Shows whether the company has been a losing defendant in commercial cases |
| Tianyancha / Qichacha | Shareholders, related companies, lawsuits, news mentions | A combined view of the corporate group, useful when a single holding entity is just one of several |
| Baidu Maps / Google Maps | Satellite and street view of the registered address | Confirms the address is an industrial park, not a residential apartment |
All five are free and require no Chinese bank account. Translators handle any Chinese-only fields.
Case: The Right City, Wrong Address
A buyer found a 'Yiwu factory' on Alibaba with a clean business licence, a Gold Supplier badge and a polished catalogue. The licence was in our hands within minutes and the SAMR lookup confirmed an active status. Then we opened Baidu Maps at the registered address.
The pin landed in the middle of a residential block in a different district of the same city, surrounded by apartment buildings and a primary school. No factory floor, no workshop, no industrial zoning. A phone call to the listed legal representative produced a long silence followed by a busy signal.
We had caught it before any money moved. The cost to the buyer was twenty minutes of verification work, no deposit lost.
Status Codes Worth Memorising
You do not need to learn Chinese. You do need to recognise the four status values that determine whether a company is a viable counterpart.
| Status | Reading | What it means | Decision |
|---|---|---|---|
| 存续 | cunxu | Active and operating | Proceed to the next verification step |
| 吊销 | diaoxiao | Licence revoked by the regulator | Walk away |
| 注销 | zhuxiao | Cancelled and deregistered | Walk away |
| 迁出 | qianchu | Relocated to another jurisdiction | Ask where, and re-verify in the new jurisdiction |
A revoked or cancelled status is final. A relocated status is recoverable with a fresh lookup.
Limits You Should Expect From a Licence Check
- The licence is current, the company is shaky. An active status does not imply financial health. Cross-check the court records and the tax credit rating separately.
- The registry lags behind reality. A penalty decided in court last month may not appear in the public listing for several weeks. Repeat the check on large orders.
- Chinese interface only. Use a translation tool or a Chinese-speaking contact. The site is not available in English at the time of writing.
- Trading companies are legal, not fraudulent. A company registered as a trading business that sells you a product is doing exactly what its licence allows. That does not make it the right counterpart for a factory-direct order.
How RND SOURCING Treats Licence Checks
Every supplier in our network has been through this check in the last twelve months, and most have been through it within the last six. We share the licence image, the SAMR status screenshot and the Baidu Maps cross-check with any buyer who asks for them, in the same conversation as the quotation.
We also state the boundary clearly. The licence tells you who you are dealing with. It does not tell you whether the goods will arrive in acceptable condition. For that you need a written specification, a sample run, an inspection and the payment structure that keeps leverage with you until inspection passes.
If a supplier cannot produce a licence image within twenty-four hours, that is itself the most useful piece of information you will get about them.
Ask for our licence and reference listRelated Questions
- How do I verify a Chinese supplier is a real factory?
- How do I check if a factory address is real?
- What percentage of Alibaba suppliers are trading companies, not factories?
- How do I spot a trading company disguised as a factory?
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