How to check whether a Chinese supplier is real

A company registered in China either has a public record or it does not. What a buyer needs sits in that record plus four other files, and the checks take me about forty minutes once I have a legal name rather than a trade name.

What to check, and where

The registry, and what the law puts in it

The national registry is run by the market regulator, and its contents are listed in the Interim Regulations on the Disclosure of Enterprise Information — State Council Order 654, published 7 August 2014, revised 10 March 2024 (consolidated text, Ministry of Justice). Article 6 lists what the regulator publishes: registration and filing information, chattel-mortgage registrations, equity pledges and administrative penalties, each within 20 working days of arising. Article 10 puts a different list on the company itself — subscribed and paid-in capital, capital changes, licences, penalties.

The code, and the field most buyers skip

Every registration carries an 18-character unified social credit code, designed in the State Council’s 2015 plan for the code system (国发〔2015〕33号, 17 June 2015). Position 1 is the registering department: the code centre’s tables give 1 to 机构编制, 5 to 民政 and 9 to 工商, and show a market-regulated company starting 91 (structure, department table, 4 March 2026). Positions 3 to 8 are the administrative division code of the registering authority, the same six digits a Chinese address uses. Compare those with the province on the quote; a mismatch is not misconduct.

Registered capital is a promise on a clock

The 2023 company law, in force from 1 July 2024 (Article 266), shortened the deadline for paying in capital: Article 47 requires the shareholders of a limited liability company to pay the subscribed amounts in full within five years of incorporation, and Article 40 requires publication of the subscribed amount, the paid-in amount, the method and the dates (Company Law 2023, gov.cn). Companies registered before 30 June 2024 have until 30 June 2027 to pull a longer subscription period inside five years, under State Council Order 784, in force from 1 July 2024; Article 6 has the registry annotate a company that fails to adjust (Order 784, 1 July 2024).

Millions subscribed by a company incorporated in 2024 means little; when a sales contact offers “our registered capital is X” as evidence of strength, the paid-in number is the one that answers. The annual report also holds headcount, assets and revenue, but Article 9 of Order 654 makes that block optional, so a blank headcount is the default, not a warning.

The two lists, and what removal erases

The abnormal operations list (经营异常名录) has four grounds under Article 4 of the abnormal operations rules — Order 68 of 19 August 2014, amended by Order 101 on 18 March 2025 and Order 108 on 21 November 2025 (current text, SAMR): a late annual report, information left unpublished after an order to publish, an unregistered name change, and an address where the company cannot be reached. The third ground replaced the 2014 rule’s false-filings ground (2014 text, gov.cn). Article 5 fixes what an entry carries: name, credit code, date listed, ground, deciding authority. Article 9 defines unreachable as two registered letters returned unsigned, 15 to 30 days apart. Article 10 says that on removal the authority stops publishing the listing, so an empty record cannot distinguish never-listed from listed-and-repaired.

The serious list (严重违法失信名单) has been governed since 15 July 2026 by SAMR Order 128, published 25 May 2026, which repealed Order 44 of 30 July 2021 (Order 128, SAMR). Article 3 requires egregious conduct and a heavier administrative penalty. Removal runs through SAMR Order 107, in force 25 December 2025: Article 13 lets a listed party apply to come out once the listing has run a year, and the authority removes it at three years (Order 107, SAMR). Article 20 of Order 128 should make a buyer pause over an empty page: if the penalty a listing rested on is revoked or declared invalid, the listing is cancelled within three working days.

The two records the registry does not carry

Court enforcement is published by the Supreme People’s Court on 中国执行信息公开网, under the 2013 rules on the dishonest-debtor list — adopted 1 July 2013, in force 1 October 2013, amended 16 January 2017 (rules text; the court’s notice of the start date, 24 December 2013). Article 6 fixes what an entry shows: the debtor’s name, credit code and legal representative, the obligation and what has been performed, the specific conduct, the case number and the court. Article 2 gives the inclusion a term — two years, extendable by one to three where violence, threats or multiple dishonest acts are involved.

Customs standing is the other. The rules are 海关总署令第282号, adopted 30 December 2025, published 13 January 2026, effective 1 April 2026 (Order 282, State Council gazette). Article 4 sets five grades: 高级认证企业, 认证企业, 常规企业, 失信企业, 严重失信企业. Article 8 makes the first two China’s Authorised Economic Operators, the status carrying mutual-recognition benefits abroad.

The query platform is credit.customs.gov.cn. Its index page names the directories 高级认证企业名录, 认证企业名录, 失信企业名录 and 严重失信企业名录, and those labels come from the 2026 rules, so a claimed AEO status is checkable in principle, though not by me. A factory exporting through a trading company or freight agent may hold no customs registration, so absence there is not evidence.

What a factory visit can settle

The address on the licence against the address of the production floor. A trading company’s registered address is an office, and the factory it uses is a supplier it does not own. That is legal and common, and it changes who you are dealing with: your recourse runs to the company you paid, not the plant.

Certificates are checkable on 全国认证认可信息公共服务平台 at cx.cnca.cn, through its 认证结果查询 screen; the accreditation body’s page only points there (CNAS page, 11 October 2026). Read the status, not the logo: valid, suspended, withdrawn, cancelled, expired.

On an ISO 9001 certificate there is a softer check. IAF MD 5:2019, Table QMS 1 ties minimum initial audit time to effective personnel: 1.5 days for 1 to 5, 10 days for 276 to 425, 12 for 626 to 875 (IAF MD 5:2019, issued 11 November 2019). Audit time can be adjusted down, so a certificate for a claimed 400-person plant after a two-day audit is a question, not a verdict.

Signals that are not evidence

A well-built website says nothing about registration, and certificate screenshots are images too; check whether the number and the holder’s name resolve in the registry, and whether that name is the one you will pay.

Platform badges mean what the platform says. Alibaba’s buyer guide defines a Gold Supplier as a business verified as legally registered by a third party, a Verified Supplier as one whose profile, management, capabilities, products and processes third parties have assessed, and a Trade Assurance Supplier as one that accepts payment through the platform (Alibaba buyer guide, 11 October 2026). A badge narrows a search; it does not verify a product.

The payment sequence is the real control

Two rules do more than any registry page. Pay the legal entity whose registered name matches the contract and the registry record. Pay into an account in that entity’s own name. A last-minute change of beneficiary account, a request to pay a personal account, or payment to a similarly named company elsewhere moves the transaction outside every check you did.

Platform protection is the second lever, in the form the platform publishes it: Trade Assurance covers orders paid online through the platform, is free for buyers, and allows a refund request within 30 days of delivery (Alibaba buyer terms, 11 October 2026). Payment must go through the platform order rather than third-party apps or sites, and the terms are the platform’s, so they can change. For a larger first order a documentary credit moves the money against documents rather than trust, under UCP 600 (ICC, UCP 600, 11 October 2026).

I could not trace the familiar 30% deposit and 70% before shipment split to a primary publisher, so I treat it as an opening position and prefer a sequence tied to evidence: sample approved, then a deposit; inspection passed, then the balance. The test order is one carton at a size the factory will actually run, paid in full and inspected, because the names on the invoice, the bank account, the package and the registry have to match.

How I checked this

I read each rule at the publisher, and fetched every page above on 11 October 2026 unless it carries its own date. Four version traps showed up: the serious-list rules changed on 15 July 2026, when Order 128 replaced Order 44; the abnormal operations rules were amended twice in 2025, one ground replaced outright; the customs rules moved to a five-grade scheme on 1 April 2026; and credit repair is no longer the 2021 notice 国市监信规〔2021〕3号 but Order 107, in force 25 December 2025.

Reachability differed by host. credit.customs.gov.cn refused a plain request with 412 and, in a browser, served its own block page; its directory names reached me only through a reader proxy. gsxt.gov.cn answered 521 to a plain request, 521 through a local proxy, and 412 through the reader proxy, and a browser that cleared its JavaScript cookie challenge still got an empty document. cx.cnca.cn returned the same 521 challenge.

What I could not check

• The registry page itself. Every route I tried to gsxt.gov.cn was challenged rather than served, so the field list above comes from the regulation, not a live record. A challenge to automated access is not the same as a missing record.
• The GB 32100-2015 standard text. The structure above is cited from the code centre’s tables and the 2015 plan; I could not read the standard itself.
• The Trade Assurance payment-terms page. tradeassurance.alibaba.com/ta/Payment.htm would not resolve here on 11 October 2026, so the payment claims rest on the buyer-terms page.
• Whether a removed abnormal-operations entry stays visible in mirrors. Article 10 says the authority stops publishing it; third-party mirrors I did not test.
• Whether every production site must be registered separately, and whether Alibaba’s definitions cover every badge. No rule requires the first in general terms, and badge tiers change.
• The UCP 600 clause text. I link the ICC library entry, which sits behind ICC’s subscription; I did not read the articles.
• The 30%/70% payment split. Industry-common figure, unverified.
• Product quality. Nothing above tells you whether a product is good, only whether the entity behind it is what it claims to be.