You’ve found the perfect product on Alibaba or Made-in-China.com. The price is competitive, the images look professional, and the supplier responds to your messages within an hour. It feels like you are ready to send that deposit and get the ball rolling.
But hold on. In the world of cross-border trade, that initial excitement can sometimes blind us to a critical question: Is this company actually who they say they are?
Every year, thousands of overseas buyers—from solo e-commerce sellers to established procurement firms—learn this lesson the hard way. They send a 30% deposit, only to receive substandard goods, or worse, nothing at all . The reality is that verifying a Chinese supplier isn’t just about ticking a box; it’s about protecting your capital, your brand’s reputation, and your peace of mind.
The good news is that China has developed a surprisingly transparent system for company verification over the last decade. You just need to know where to look and what to look for. This guide will walk you through a simple, step-by-step process to check any Chinese supplier’s credentials before you commit a single dollar.
Step 1: Start with the Golden Source—The Government Database
Forget the screenshots the supplier sends you. Anyone with photo editing software can create a fake business license. Your first and most reliable step is to go directly to the source: the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (NECIPS) , operated by China’s State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) .
How to use it:
- Visit the official website:
www.gsxt.gov.cn. (Note: It is in Chinese, so you may need to use a browser with a translation feature, or better yet, ask a Chinese-speaking partner for help). - Ask your supplier for their exact Chinese legal name and their Unified Social Credit Code. This is a unique 18-digit code for every registered entity in China .
- Enter this information into the search bar.
What you are looking for:
Once you pull up the record, you will see a dashboard of information that is updated by the companies themselves, as mandated by the Regulations on the Publicity of Enterprise Information . This is your first reality check.
- Basic Registration: Does the company name, legal representative, and registered capital match what the supplier told you?
- Business Scope: This is crucial. If the supplier claims to be a manufacturer but their registered business scope says “trading” or “sales,” you are likely dealing with a middleman, not a factory .
- Operating Status: Is the company status listed as “Active” (存续), or has it been revoked or dissolved?
The “Red Flag” Check:
The most valuable part of this system is the public record of penalties. Scroll down to the sections titled “List of Operation Anomalies” and “List of Serious Illegal and Dishonest Enterprises.”
If you see the company listed here, it is a serious warning sign. Common reasons for being listed include failing to submit annual reports on time or being unable to contact the company at its registered address . If a company can’t keep its government records straight, how can you trust them to handle your order correctly?
This official snapshot is the foundation of any good investigation. For a deeper dive into this specific document, you can check out our detailed guide on the Official Enterprise Credit Report .
Step 2: Go Beyond the Basics—Check the Financial Health
The basic government report tells you a company is alive. But is it healthy? To find that out, you need to dig into their financial filings.
Under China’s information publicity system, companies are required to submit annual reports to the authorities . While some financial details (like tax payment totals) can be kept private with the company’s consent, much of it becomes public.
Key things to look for in their filing history:
- Registered vs. Paid-in Capital: A company might claim a huge registered capital (e.g., 10 million RMB), but the system will show you the actual paid-in capital. A massive gap between these two numbers could indicate a shell company.
- Shareholder History: Has the company changed owners frequently? A revolving door of shareholders or legal representatives can be a sign of instability or past business failures .
- Consistency: Do the annual filings show a logical progression of business activity? A company established in 2015 with zero filings until 2023 might have been dormant and is now being “revived” for a potential scam.
Step 3: Verify the Physical Address and Operations
Paperwork is one thing, but a physical factory is another. In many fraud cases, the scammer operates from a small apartment or a shared office space, while claiming to have a massive production facility .
How to verify physical presence:
- The Satellite Check: Take the registered address from the government database and paste it into Google Maps or Baidu Maps. Use satellite view or street view. Do you see an industrial park, a large factory building, or a residential apartment complex? If a “factory” is located in a residential building, that’s a major red flag.
- The Live Video Call: This is one of the most powerful tools you have. Ask the supplier for a live video tour of their facilities during their working hours. Ask them to walk through the production floor and show you the machines running . A legitimate factory will usually oblige; a trading company will make excuses.
Step 4: Don’t Stop at the Company—Check the People
You aren’t doing business with a building; you’re doing business with people. Specifically, you need to look at the company’s Legal Representative (法定代表人) .
The legal representative is the person legally responsible for the company’s actions . If the company defaults on a loan or gets sued, this person’s name is attached to it. You can often find information on the legal representative within the NECIPS database, but sometimes you need to go a step further to third-party aggregators to see if this individual is a named defendant in lawsuits or, even worse, listed on the blacklist of dishonest judgment debtors (often referred to as the “Lao Lai” list). A legal representative with a history of unpaid debts is a massive liability for your potential partnership.
Step 5: Summarize Your Findings with a Customized Report
By now, you have gathered a lot of information. You’ve checked the government database, verified the finances, mapped the address, and researched the people. But what does it all mean for your specific order?
This is where bringing all the threads together creates a clear picture. For instance, imagine you are sourcing electronics.
- The Official Report confirms the company is registered.
- The Financial Filings show stable capital and consistent reporting.
- The Shareholder Analysis reveals the same family has owned it for 15 years.
- The Legal Checks show zero court judgments against the company or its legal representative.
That’s a solid green light.
But what if you find discrepancies?
- Scenario A: The Official Report shows the company is in the “List of Operation Anomalies” for “not being contactable at its registered address.” This confirms the “address verification” red flag you saw on Google Maps.
- Scenario B: The company’s business scope says “trading,” and the Legal Representative is only 25 years old with no history in manufacturing. This supports your suspicion that you are dealing with a new trading company, not an established factory.
By cross-referencing all these data points, you turn raw data into actionable intelligence. This is the difference between a guess and a decision.
If pulling all this data yourself sounds daunting, you don’t have to do it alone. Services like our Professional Enterprise Credit Report are designed to do this heavy lifting for you, compiling official data, financial insights, and risk analysis into a single, easy-to-read English document.
Conclusion: Trust, But Verify
Sourcing from China is one of the smartest moves you can make for your business, offering incredible value and scale. But the “Wild West” days of the early internet are over. With the systems available today, there is no excuse for going in blind.
By taking these five steps—checking the official database, analyzing financial health, verifying the physical location, screening the people involved, and consolidating your findings—you move from being a hopeful buyer to an informed business partner.
Before you place that next order, take an hour to do your homework. It might just be the most profitable hour you spend all year.
ChinaBizInsight
Your strategic bridge to transparent business in China.