While a sleek Chinese business license from an Alibaba or Made-in-China supplier looks convincing, a standalone PDF proves very little. In cross-border trade, licenses are often photoshopped, borrowed, or tied to dissolved companies. Truly verifying a Chinese supplier requires cross-referencing their credentials against official government registries. This step-by-step guide covers how to read a Chinese business license, verify it via official corporate databases, and use tools like Qichacha and Tianyancha to ensure your partner is legitimate.

Business license verification is part of our comprehensive China sourcing tips. Learn more here.

For more guidance on how to avoid pitfalls when sourcing in China, click "avoid pitfalls"; for additional sourcing tips, click "sourcing tips."

Anatomy of a Chinese Business License: 5 Critical Fields to Read

Before you begin searching online databases, you must understand what information a paper or digital business license contains.

While Chinese licenses were standardized across the country into a unified paper format, all text is written entirely in Simplified Chinese. Here are the 5 key fields you must identify and translate.

1. Unified Social Credit Code

This is an 18-digit alphanumeric code assigned to every legally registered business entity in mainland China. It acts as the company's official corporate tax and legal ID number. This 18-digit code is the single most important piece of data you need to perform an online verification.

2. Legal Company Name

In mainland China, only the Chinese legal name has binding legal authority. English company names (such as "Shenzhen Apex Electronics Co., Ltd.") are informal translations used for marketing and foreign trade invoices. They do not appear on official government registration records.

3. Company Type

This field indicates the corporate structure—most commonly Limited Liability Company (有限责任公司) or Sole Proprietorship.

4. Registered Address

The official legal address registered with the local Administration for Market Regulation (AMR). Pay close attention to whether the address points to a high-rise commercial office suite or an industrial park/manufacturing zone.

5. Business Scope

A detailed list of business activities the company is legally authorized to conduct. This field explicitly delineates whether a company is authorized to manufacture/process goods or merely sell/distribute them.

How to Verify a Chinese Business License

Step 1: Obtain the Official Chinese Name and Unified Social Credit Code

To verify a business license, you must ask your sales point-of-contact for two specific details before placing a sample or production order:

1. A clear color scan or photo of their Business License.
2. Their legal Chinese Company Name typed out in Chinese text (not a screenshot, so you can copy and paste it).

Pro Tip for Foreign Buyers:

If a supplier refuses to provide their 18-digit Unified Social Credit Code or Chinese legal name, claiming it is "confidential," treat this as an immediate red flag. Publicly registered corporate details in China are legally required to be accessible to the public.

Once you have the 18-digit USCC or the Chinese legal name, you are ready to check official records.

Step 2: Lookup via Official Government Database (GSXT)

The Chinese central government operates the official corporate registry known as the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (GSXT).

Verify chinese company online Official Website: https://www.gsxt.gov.cn

How to Conduct a Search on GSXT:

1. Access www.gsxt.gov.cn using a web browser with translation extensions (such as Google Translate).

2. Copy and paste the 18-digit USCC into the main search box on the homepage.

3. Complete the Chinese character CAPTCHA verification puzzle.

4. Review the returned corporate profile.

What to Verify on GSXT:

• Registration Status: Must display In Operation / Active. If it shows Revoked or Deregistered, the company no longer legally exists.
• Legal Representative: Ensure the name matches the contract signee or bank account holder context.
• Registered capital
• Registered Address
• Business Scope

Match Check: Compare every single field returned on GSXT against the PDF business license provided by your supplier. If the registered capital, business scope, or address on the PDF differs from the GSXT database, the PDF has likely been edited or forged.

Operational Reality Warning: The official GSXT portal is notoriously slow, frequently blocks overseas IP addresses, and utilizes complex Chinese-character interactive CAPTCHAs that can be nearly impossible for non-native speakers to solve. Because of this, industry experts rely on commercial database platforms.

Step 3: Advanced Intelligence via Tianyancha and Qichacha

In China, corporate intelligence platforms like Tianyancha (tianyancha.com) and Qichacha (qcc.com, QR scan required — not recommended) pull data directly from government registries while layering on historical litigation, customs registration, intellectual property, and operational risk records.

These platforms offer a far more comprehensive picture of a company’s financial and legal health than the basic government lookup.

Step-by-Step Workflow for Using Qichacha or Tianyancha:

1. Open the Platform and Enable Browser Translation

Navigate to https://www.tianyancha.com. （Right-click anywhere on the page and select "Translate to English" using Google Chrome for convenience).

2. Input the USCC or Chinese Company Name

Paste the 18-digit USCC or Chinese company name into the prominent central search bar and press Search.

3. Inspect the Company Header Profile

Look at the top section of the generated corporate profile:

• Operating Status: Confirm that it shows Active / In Operation in a green status badge.
• Establishment Date: Check how long the company has been registered. A supplier claiming "20 years of manufacturing experience" whose company was registered 6 months ago warrants extreme caution.
• Registered Capital: Check the capital commitment. A company registered with 100,000 RMB (~$14,000 USD) claiming to manage multi-million dollar machinery fleets is likely a trading agency outsourcing production.

4. Review the Business Scope for Manufacturing Verbs

Scroll down to the Business Scope section and run a targeted text check for specific verbs:

• Genuine Factory Indicators: Must contain words like "Production", "Manufacturing", "Processing", or "Assembly".
• Trading Company Indicators: Contains only words like "Sales", "Wholesale", "Retail", or "Import and Export Trading" , without any manufacturing terminology.

5. Check the Risk Information Section

Third-party platforms aggregate public court rulings and administrative penalties. Check the following sub-tabs:

• Abnormal Operations List: Indicates whether the company failed to submit annual reports or could not be reached at its registered location by government inspectors.
• Legal Disputes & Lawsuits: Review whether the company is actively being sued by suppliers for non-payment or by buyers for breach of contract.

Red Flags: What to Look Out For During License Verification

When cross-referencing your supplier's documents with online databases, watch out for these critical red flags:

1. The 18-Digit Code Yields Zero Results: If neither GSXT, Qichacha, nor Tianyancha can locate the USCC number provided by the supplier, the document is either completely fake or the number was mistyped.
2. Name Mismatch on Bank Accounts: The legal Chinese name on the business license must match the corporate bank account name used for receiving foreign payments (PI / Proforma Invoice). If a supplier asks you to pay a personal bank account or an unrelated offshore entity, your risk exposure increases significantly.
3. Mismatched Physical Address: If the business license lists an office suite in a commercial downtown tower, but the supplier claims to operate heavy stamping equipment at that location, you are communicating with a middleman.
4. Recent Operational Changes: If a company frequently changes its legal representative, name, or registered address every few months, it often indicates an attempt to escape legal liabilities or negative buyer reviews.

The Limitations of Online License Verification

While online license verification is an essential first step in supply chain risk mitigation, it is important to recognize its inherent limitations:

• A Valid License Does Not Equal High Quality: A company can be legally registered, fully compliant with Chinese market regulators, and possess clean court records—yet still produce sub-par products, miss shipment deadlines, or use inferior raw materials.
• The "Rented License" Loophole: Trading companies sometimes obtain copies of a real factory's business license through business relationships and present it as their own to foreign buyers.
• Paper Audits Cannot Verify Capacity: Online registries cannot tell you if a factory currently has active assembly lines, adequate quality control staffing, proper testing equipment, or safe working conditions.

Online lookup confirms that a legal entity exists; it does not guarantee that your specific order will be manufactured correctly.

Verifying a Chinese business license via official registries like GSXT and intelligence platforms like Qichacha or Tianyancha is the most effective way to weed out low-level scammers and unmask middlemen pretending to be direct manufacturers. Before transferring deposits overseas, always demand the 18-digit Unified Social Credit Code and cross-reference every detail independently.

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