Business licence field guide

Read the licence, then check the company behind it.

To verify a Chinese business licence, copy its Chinese legal name and USCC, look up the registered entity, and compare the remaining fields. The image alone cannot establish that your contact represents the company.

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Copy the identity fields without translating them

SAMR's implementing rules, Article 23, specify the information carried on a business licence. Layout and labels can vary by entity type. Preserve the Chinese spelling and the entire identifier when searching.

  • 名称 — Legal name: copy every Chinese character, including the company suffix.
  • 统一社会信用代码 — Unified Social Credit Code: copy all 18 characters, including letters.
  • 法定代表人 — Legal representative: this person is not necessarily the salesperson or owner.
  • 类型 — Entity type: record the legal form rather than treating it as a manufacturer/trader label.
  • 住所 — Registered address: useful for matching, but not proof of a factory location.
  • 成立日期 — Establishment date: distinguish it from the date the document was issued or replaced.
  • 注册资本 — Registered capital: preserve both the currency and units.
  • 经营范围 — Business scope: a registered description, not proof that every listed activity is currently performed.

Use an independent lookup

Open GSXT yourself and search using the legal name or USCC. Follow the site's normal access checks. Compare the returned identity, status, address and other available registration fields with the document. If you cannot retrieve a record, record the check as incomplete; do not treat an access failure as evidence that the company does not exist.

A commercial company-search service can help locate a candidate. Keep a note of which source you actually used and when. A provider result and an official registry result should not be described as the same check.

Interpret the fields before deciding

Registered capital is not a balance-sheet cash figure. SAMR explains that the amount on a licence need not be the paid-in contribution. Separately, a broad business scope does not establish equipment, workforce or production capacity.

Unit example: 100 万人民币 is RMB 1,000,000. Missing the ten-thousand multiplier changes the amount by a factor of 10,000. Keep the original value alongside the English rendering.

Work through a mismatch

Illustrative example, not a real supplier: a licence and a retrieved record have the same USCC but different addresses. Record the two addresses and document dates. Ask for the current licence and evidence of the registered-address change. The shared code supports investigating continuity; it does not justify silently replacing one address with the other.

If the USCC differs, first check for a copying error. If it still differs, treat the records as an unresolved entity mismatch. Do not combine one company's history with another company's quotation.

Keep a small verification record

Save the source URL or document reference, lookup date, Chinese name, USCC, matching fields and discrepancies. End with a narrow conclusion such as: legal identity matched to the retrieved record; salesperson and beneficiary not checked.

Ask the supplier which legal entity signs the contract and receives payment. Matching a licence does not authenticate a bank account or a changed payment instruction.

FAQ

Common questions

Does a stamped licence image prove a supplier is legitimate?

No. Match the document to a retrieved registration record, then separately establish the contact's connection to the company. A convincing image can be outdated or belong to a different company.

Does registered capital show how much cash the supplier has?

No. The registered amount is not a current cash balance and does not necessarily equal paid-in capital. Preserve the currency and units, and use separate evidence for financial capacity.

What if I cannot access the official registry?

Mark the official check as incomplete. If you use another source, name that source and its date. An inaccessible registry is not proof that a company is unregistered.

Primary references

References and the next identity check

The field definitions come from SAMR. The mismatch and unit examples above are teaching examples, not findings about a supplier.

Next step

Identify the company you are considering

Start with its Chinese legal name or USCC. Review the match before ordering a report.

Search a company