🇨🇳How to verify a supplier in China

To verify a supplier in China, look the company up for free in the official NECIPS / GSXT, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (SAMR) and confirm it is registered and currently active. The registry returns the legal CHINESE name, the USCC, status, the legal representative, registered vs paid-in capital, the shareholders, the business scope, administrative penalties, and the abnormal-operations list (companies that could not be reached at their registered address).

The official registry

Registry: NECIPS / GSXT, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (SAMR)
Company ID: Unified Social Credit Code (USCC): 18 characters, a commercial company starts with 91
Cost: Free basic lookup
Active status: The company must be registered and NOT carry an abnormal-operations flag. Registered capital and the social-security headcount in the annual report are the reality check: a supplier claiming a 500-person factory while showing 50,000 RMB of capital and 0-1 insured employees is a middleman with a desk.

Open the official China registry

Only the CHINESE name has legal force. An English name on a website or a pro-forma invoice (Shenzhen Great Wall Trading) is a translation, not an identity. Ask for the business licence (the scan carries a QR code that resolves to the state register) and take the characters and the USCC from it.
Read the BUSINESS SCOPE on that licence. Chinese companies may only trade within their registered scope, so a cable factory suddenly selling you medical masks is a problem: customs can block the export and the contract itself is unsound.
The company chop (the red seal) is what binds a Chinese contract, not a signature. And the payee must match: a request to pay a personal card, or an offshore Hong Kong entity with a different name, is the classic fraud shape.
Honest limits, verified 2026-07-14: gsxt.gov.cn refuses most foreign IPs (it answered 521 from ours), searches only by Chinese characters or USCC, and requires a mainland phone number for the detailed records. It is the authoritative register, but it is not a check you can complete from abroad in one click.
Two registers that DO answer from abroad: the customs Single Window food-exporter registry (ciferquery.singlewindow.cn) confirms whether a factory is registered with GACC to export food, and NMPA (nmpa.gov.cn/datasearch) confirms drug, medical-device and cosmetics manufacturing licences. Both are searchable free.
Before any deposit, check the courts: zxgk.court.gov.cn lists companies on the dishonest-debtor blacklist (their accounts are frozen and their bosses are barred from flights). Access from outside China is unreliable, so this is one to ask a local partner or agent to run.

Sector export licences

Being a registered, active company is not the same as being allowed to export a specific product. In China, these sectors carry their own export licence or certificate from a named regulator, so a genuine exporter of these goods holds a current one. Ask for it, then check it at the source.

pharmaceuticalsmandatory
GMP certificate from the National Medical Products Administration.
Verify the pharmaceutical license status and GMP compliance via the NMPA public database.
We could not confirm a live official link for this regulator, so no source is shown. Search the regulator name on the China government domain to reach it.
rough diamondsmandatory
Kimberley Process certificate from the General Administration of Customs.
Cross-reference the diamond export tracking reference with the automated customs clearance system.
We could not confirm a live official link for this regulator, so no source is shown. Search the regulator name on the China government domain to reach it.

This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice, and the list is not exhaustive.

Verify it in four steps

1. Open the NECIPS / GSXT, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (SAMR)
NECIPS / GSXT, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (SAMR) is the official government record of companies in China. Basic name or number search is free.
2. Search the exact legal name or ID
Search the supplier's registered name or its Unified Social Credit Code (USCC): 18 characters, a commercial company starts with 91. If the name does not match cleanly, treat it as a red flag, it may be a trade name, a different entity, or wrong.
3. Confirm it is active, not struck off
The company must be registered and NOT carry an abnormal-operations flag. Registered capital and the social-security headcount in the annual report are the reality check: a supplier claiming a 500-person factory while showing 50,000 RMB of capital and 0-1 insured employees is a middleman with a desk.
4. Check it makes what it sells
A real factory carries a manufacturing activity code and a consistent trade history; a middleman reselling everything is the most common mismatch.

This is a factual pointer to public records, not legal advice. For the full method, see the 7 checks that separate a real supplier from a scam.

We do this check for you

On every China company we list, we show what the open record says, each linked to its free public source so you can re-check it yourself, no paid badge. And we go past the big directories to the local and craft makers who are too small for them but real, then verify and sort them, so you find genuine China suppliers, not just the loudest.

Check a supplier Browse China suppliers

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Questions

Is checking a China supplier free?

Yes. A basic name or number lookup in the NECIPS / GSXT, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (SAMR) is free. Some full official extracts are paid, but confirming a company exists and is active costs nothing.

What ID does a China company have?

Its Unified Social Credit Code (USCC): 18 characters, a commercial company starts with 91. Ask the supplier for it, then confirm it in the NECIPS / GSXT, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (SAMR) and check the registered name matches.

How do I know a China supplier is a real manufacturer, not a reseller?

The registry's activity code is the tell: a manufacturing code means a real maker, a wholesale or retail code means a trader. Only the CHINESE name has legal force. An English name on a website or a pro-forma invoice (Shenzhen Great Wall Trading) is a translation, not an identity. Ask for the business licence (the scan carries a QR code that resolves to the state register) and take the characters and the USCC from it.