How to Check a Chinese Company: Business Licence & Credit Code

Why should a Chinese company check come before the first payment?

Most problems in trade with China arise from not knowing exactly who the other party is. Sometimes the company making the sale and the company collecting the money are different; sometimes the place called “our factory” is actually a trading office; and sometimes the company appears in official records as having stopped operating long ago. All of this can be uncovered before ordering with a few simple searches. After payment, if something goes wrong, you may be left with nothing more than an email address and a WeChat account. A company check should therefore be seen not as a sign of distrust but as a standard step in professional purchasing.

Chinese suppliers are also used to this approach. A serious company will not hesitate to send a copy of its business licence, share its factory address or give a video tour of the factory. On the contrary, making these requests clearly and politely positions you as an informed buyer and strengthens your hand in price negotiations. A counterpart who is reluctant to provide documents, keeps making excuses or asks for payment only to a personal account sends a signal worth noting from the very beginning.

What to look for on a Chinese business licence (营业执照)

Every company operating in China has a business licence, and this document is like the company's ID card. The licence shows the company's full Chinese name, unified social credit code, company type, legal representative, registered capital, date of establishment, registered address and business scope. Ask the supplier for a clear photo of the licence and compare these details with the official register. The name on the licence matching exactly the name on the contract, the invoice and the bank account is a basic condition of a safe transaction.

Having the right expectations about registered capital also matters. In China, registered capital is often the subscribed amount and does not mean that all of it has actually been paid in. A high capital figure is therefore not a guarantee on its own; what matters more is how long the company has been operating, whether its address and managers are stable and whether there are any negative records. If a company was established very recently but claims “twenty years of experience”, it is reasonable to ask why; sometimes there is a sensible explanation such as a change of group company.

How to check a Chinese company with the unified social credit code

The unified social credit code (统一社会信用代码) is a unique eighteen-character code of letters and numbers assigned to every Chinese company. You can think of it as a combination of a Turkish tax number and trade registry number. Using this code you can access the company's registered details through China's official National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (国家企业信用信息公示系统). Alongside the official system, commercial company information platforms widely used in China present the same data in a more organised interface and may also show court records, trademark filings and shareholder links.

Most of these platforms have a Chinese-only interface, and some detailed reports may require an account registered in China. In the search results, look especially at the status: is the company “active” (存续 or 在业), or has its licence been “revoked” (吊销) or its registration “cancelled” (注销)? Checking whether the company is on the “abnormal operations list” (经营异常名录) also helps you spot firms that cannot be found at their address or have not filed annual reports. At Yeni İpekyolu, our Chinese company check service reviews these records from Chinese sources and presents the results to you in a clear report in Turkish.

• The company's full Chinese name and credit code
• Status: active, revoked or cancelled
• Date of establishment and legal representative
• Business scope (经营范围)
• Abnormal operations list and court records
• How the registered address relates to the factory address

Factory or trading company? Five ways to tell the difference

This is the question Turkish buyers ask most often. First, let us be clear: working with a trading company is not a bad thing. A good trading company works with several factories, consolidates mixed orders, manages export documents and can be very valuable for buyers with smaller volumes. The problem arises when a trading company presents itself as a factory, because then expectations about price, production capacity, responsibility for quality control and lead times are set up wrongly. The goal is to know who you are working with and to ask the right questions accordingly.

The most reliable first step is to read the business scope. A manufacturer's business scope usually states “production” (生产 or 制造) and the relevant product group explicitly; if it only says “sales” (销售), “import and export” (进出口) or “trading”, you are most likely talking to a trading company. The second step is checking the address: is the registered address in an industrial zone or in an office tower in the city centre? Some factories also use a separate trading company for exports; in that case the shareholder link between the two companies can often be seen on the search platforms.

• Does the business scope mention “production” and the product group?
• Is the registered address in an industrial zone?
• Can they show the production line, machines and warehouse on a live video call?
• Are product-specific production certificates and test reports in their own name?
• Can they break prices down by tooling, material and labour?

Beyond the official records: verifying the supplier on site

A registry search shows that a company exists and is legally active, but not its production capacity, quality system or working culture. Before an important order, visiting the factory in person or having it audited by a trusted team fills this gap. During a site visit you observe the factory's address and signage, machinery, a general impression of the workforce, raw material stock, warehouse organisation and the final inspection area. Seeing products for other brands inside the factory can also indicate genuine experience in your product category.

If a physical visit is not possible, a planned video tour of the factory is a good intermediate solution. Ask for the tour to be live and uninterrupted, at a time you set in advance; ready-made promotional videos are not enough. Request that the camera show the sign at the factory gate, a company name matching the business licence and a production line similar to your product. Having a Chinese speaker on the call allows natural communication with staff on the floor and helps you judge whether the answers given are consistent.

Bank account, invoice and contract names must match

A step that is often overlooked but is the most critical in a Chinese company check is who owns the account you will pay. In a safe transaction, the proforma invoice, contract and bank account all bear the same company name. A supplier may give the account of a different company, for example an affiliate in Hong Kong; this does not always mean fraud, but you should always request a written, chopped explanation. A request to pay into a personal account is a practice that should not be accepted for large orders.

Be careful about business email fraud as well. If a supplier you have worked with for a long time suddenly emails that “our bank account has changed”, confirm by voice through a known phone number or WeChat before paying. Even a single letter's difference in the email address can indicate a fake message. Writing the bank details into the contract and stating that changes will be accepted only by chopped letter greatly reduces this risk. Regularly archiving payment slips and the supplier's confirmation messages also makes it easier to act quickly with your bank if a problem arises.

Chinese company check checklist and support from Yeni İpekyolu

To summarise what we have covered in a short sequence: first ask for the business licence, then check the official records using the credit code, look at the status and any abnormal records, use the business scope to work out whether it is a factory or a trading company, verify with a live video tour or site visit, and finally make sure the payment account belongs to the company in the contract. Each of these steps may look small on its own, but applied together they make your buying process from China far more predictable.

At Yeni İpekyolu, with our Istanbul office and our team and partners in Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Yiwu, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Beijing, we provide Chinese company checks, factory audits and supplier verification. We review the Chinese records, visit the factory on site when needed and send you a decision-ready report in Turkish. We also help you plan the check not as a one-off task but as a review repeated at intervals throughout the supplier relationship. Contact us to check your supplier together before the first payment.