How to verify a Chinese business licence on the official system

By Heymi Zhu, founder · Published 23 September 2026 · Last updated 23 September 2026

Every company in mainland China has a record on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. The site is run by the market regulator and is free to use. Enter the company name or the unified social credit code, open the record, and read four things: the licence status, the business scope, the registered details, and the annual reports. That takes about ten minutes per company.

The system is at gsxt.gov.cn and it is in Chinese. A browser translator is enough to follow it. Some provinces also run their own portal, but the national system covers the whole country and should be your first stop.

What the registry shows you

• The legal name and the unified social credit code.
• The licence status: active, revoked or deregistered.
• The legal representative and the registered capital.
• The establishment date and the registered address.
• The business scope, which lists what the company is allowed to do.
• Annual reports the company has filed, including headcount.
• Any listing on the abnormal operations or serious violations registers.

Step by step

1. Open the search. Go to gsxt.gov.cn and use the search box on the home page. You can search by company name or by the unified social credit code. If you have the Chinese name from the quotation or invoice, search with that. It is more reliable than the English name on a catalogue.
2. Pick the right match. Searches often return several companies with similar names. Match on the credit code and the registered address, not on the name alone.
3. Check the status. An active company shows as 存续 or 在营. A revoked licence shows as 吊销, and a deregistered company shows as 注销. A revoked or deregistered company should not be taking your order.
4. Read the scope. The scope lists the permitted activities. Look for the production of your kind of goods, not just wholesale or import and export. If the scope is trading, the company may still own a factory through another entity, so pair this with a floor check.
5. Read the registration details. Note the establishment date, the registered capital and the legal representative. A company trading for less than two years carries more risk, and the legal representative should match the person signing your quotation.
6. Open the annual reports. Companies file a yearly report that includes the reported number of employees and social insurance contributions. A factory that claims hundreds of staff but reports a handful is worth a second look.
7. Check the warning registers. Search the record for entries on the abnormal operations list or the serious violations list. Either one is a reason to slow down.

Reading the business scope

The business scope is a list of activities the company registered when it was set up or when it later amended its licence. It is written in a standard vocabulary. For manufacturing you are looking for terms such as 生产 (production) or 制造 (manufacture) of your category. Trading companies usually list 批发 (wholesale), 零售 (retail) or 进出口 (import and export).

Two cautions. First, a manufacturing scope does not prove a running line. Second, a trading scope does not prove there is no factory behind the company. The scope narrows the field. It does not settle the question. Use it together with the floor check in our guide to telling a factory from a trading company.

Annual reports and headcount

Each year a company files a report that includes, among other items, the number of employees it reports. This is the closest thing the public record has to a headcount. It is self-reported, so treat it as a signal rather than a fact. A large reported headcount points to real operations. A tiny one at a company describing itself as a major factory is a mismatch worth asking about.

Look at the trend across years as well. A headcount that collapsed in the most recent report may mean the line has slowed or stopped.

What the registry does not show

The registry does not show quality, capacity or whether the company pays its workers on time. It does not show who actually owns the business behind a nominee legal representative. It also lags behind reality, because changes are filed after the fact and licences can stay active after a line has stopped.

Read the record as one input. It answers the questions about legal identity and permitted activity. It cannot answer whether the factory can make your product well. For that you need the floor, the records and a test of the sample.

Keep the evidence

Save a dated screenshot of the record and note the credit code. If a supplier rebrands or a dispute arises, the snapshot shows what the record said on the day you checked. It also lets you compare the legal name on the registry with the name on the quotation, the bank details and the test reports. Those four names should be the same company.

See how registry checks fit into the full service on the sourcing method page, or look at the category we run today, eyewear sourcing in Danyang.

Written by Platinum Sky Sourcing, a service of Platinum Sky Group Limited (Hong Kong). We verify factories in China for overseas brands. Last updated 23 September 2026.