Method
Seven checks, in the same order, every time.
Finding the records is the easy part. Knowing which findings matter for your transaction and which are ordinary is the work.
The sequence
Checks 01–06
What any analyst who reads Chinese could run
Legal identity and registered capital
Does the company exist, is it active, and is the registered name the same as the name on the correspondence? We match the name used in emails against the licence, confirm the Unified Social Credit Code, and check registration status. 存续 and 在业 are active, 吊销 is revoked, 注销 is dissolved.
Registered capital in China is a commitment, not money in the bank. We report registered against paid-up capital, the contribution deadline, and the social insurance headcount on file. Ten million yuan registered, nothing paid up and four people on the payroll describes a very different operation from the one in the photographs.
A revoked licence still appears on a website. It no longer appears in the register.
Registered scope
Chinese companies are licensed for specific activities, set out on the licence as the 经营范围. A company registered for wholesale and retail is not registered to manufacture. If the scope says trading only, you are buying through an intermediary, which can be perfectly acceptable provided your price and quality control reflect it.
The most common misrepresentation we find, and the quickest to check if you can read the licence.
Operating record
The state publishes when it has flagged a company: the abnormal operations list (经营异常名录), the serious violations list (严重违法失信名单), administrative penalties, and whether annual disclosures were filed on time.
Being listed is common and recoverable. Being listed and not knowing is the problem.
Litigation and enforcement
Judgements are public. We look for sales and purchase contract disputes, product quality disputes, enforcement cases (被执行人) and the dishonest judgement debtor list (失信被执行人).
Being sued is unremarkable for any trading company of size. Losing and then not paying is a different signal, and it is the one that predicts how you will be treated.
Ownership and control
Who owns the company, who ultimately controls it, what else they control, and whether any of it is flagged. This is where we find that the entity you negotiated with, the entity that signs, and the entity that receives payment are three different companies. That structure is entirely legal and routinely expensive.
Check 07 and certificate verification
The two that catch what the databases miss
An automated platform cannot run either of these. An inspection agency does not try.
Payment and invoicing entity
Is the account you have been asked to pay into actually theirs? We check that the bank account name matches the registered legal name, that the invoicing entity is the one on your contract, that the account belongs to the company rather than an individual, and where it is held.
This is where buyers lose the most money. Payment redirected to a third party, or to someone’s personal account, leaves you with no contractual claim against the company you actually dealt with. If the names do not match, do not pay until they do.
Certificate verification
Up to three certificates checked against the issuing body’s own register: ISO 9001 and 14001, BRC, FSC, CE and UKCA declarations, test reports.
A certificate on the wall proves nothing. The number either exists in the issuer’s database or it does not. Automated platforms skip this, and inspection agencies check that a certificate is displayed rather than that it is real.