Due diligence guide
How to Check a Chinese Company (Complete Verification Guide)
Use this comprehensive checklist to verify Chinese suppliers, factories, and business partners. Learn exactly how to validate USCC, business license, ownership, litigation history, and operational risk before wiring deposits or signing contracts.
Whether you are sourcing products, onboarding a new supplier, or evaluating an investment target, these steps help you minimize risk and document a compliant verification process.
- • Validate USCC, business license, and legal status
- • Confirm shareholders, legal reps, and ownership structure
- • Check litigation, enforcement, and sanctions risks
- • Verify addresses, business scope, and operational capability
Why you must verify Chinese companies
Common problems
- Fake or photoshopped business licenses
- Trading companies posing as factories
- Wrong beneficiary name on the bank account
- Revoked, deregistered, or abnormal-status companies
- Virtual addresses or shell entities
- High-risk legal representatives or shareholders
- Hidden litigation, enforcement, or sanctions actions
Benefits of proper verification
- Prevent payment fraud and unauthorized intermediaries.
- Confirm the supplier exists and can produce your goods.
- Validate contracts, purchase orders, and bank details.
- Detect serious risk signals before they impact your supply chain.
Required information before you begin
- Unified Social Credit Code (USCC)
- Chinese legal name (exact characters)
- English trading name or brand name
- Registered address from invoices, emails, or contracts
- Contact details, website, and product listings
- Bank beneficiary name (must match the legal entity)
Pro tip: If you’re missing the Chinese name, QINCheck can still identify the correct entity with fuzzy matching and registry lookups.
Step-by-step verification guide
Step 1 — Verify the Unified Social Credit Code (USCC)
Check the 18-digit USCC length, structure, issuing authority, entity type digit, region code, and checksum. Cross-match with SAMR to confirm the legal entity.
Run a USCC checkStep 2 — Validate the business license (营业执照)
Review the business license for legal name, USCC, company type, registered capital, scope, address, issue date, and status (active, revoked, deregistered, abnormal).
Business license verificationStep 3 — Review shareholders and legal representative
Identify owners and the legal representative. Look for political exposure, conflicts of interest, or entities linked to high-risk industries.
Step 4 — Check litigation, enforcement, and sanctions
Search Chinese court announcements, enforcement databases, and global sanctions/watchlists. Document any cases involving the entity or key people.
Step 5 — Confirm operational capability and payment risk
Validate the physical address, business scope, annual reports, employee count, and supporting evidence. Flag abnormal operations, sudden changes, or mismatched bank details.
Top red flags
- USCC checksum fails or the number belongs to another company
- Business scope lists only “import/export” but claims full manufacturing
- Address is a virtual office or cannot be located on maps
- Legal representative appears on enforcement or sanctions lists
- Bank beneficiary name differs from the registered entity
- Frequent name or shareholder changes right before signing
Example verification summary
- USCC: 91440300MA5XXXXXX (checksum valid)
- Status: Active manufacturing LLC
- Legal representative: Zhang Wei
- Shareholders: Two individuals, majority family-owned
- Address: Shenzhen Bao’an Industrial Park (confirmed)
- Business scope: Electronics manufacturing & sales
- Litigation: No cases, no enforcement actions
- Annual reports: Filed each year
- Assessment: Data aligns with claimed operations; no red flags.
Downloadable checklist
Keep this checklist with your sourcing documentation so every supplier review is consistent.
- USCC validation
- Business license snapshot
- Registered address verification
- Registered capital and company type
- Legal representative details
- Shareholder structure
- Business scope translation
- Annual report filings
- Litigation and enforcement searches
- Sanctions and watchlist screening
- Operational capability evidence
- Bank beneficiary name match
Basic check vs full verification report
| Verification area | Basic check | Full report |
|---|---|---|
| USCC validation | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Business license review | ✔️ | ✔️ |
| Shareholder details | Partial | Comprehensive |
| Litigation & enforcement | Limited | Comprehensive |
| Address & scope analysis | Partial | Full |
| Operational risk assessment | ❌ | ✔️ |
| Sanctions & adverse media | ❌ | ✔️ |
Need deeper risk checks? Order a full China company report.
FAQ: checking Chinese companies
How do I verify a Chinese company is real?
Start with the USCC and business license to confirm identity, then verify ownership, address, litigation history, and operational evidence for a complete picture.
Is the USCC enough to confirm legitimacy?
USCC confirms identity but not risk. You still need to check scope, status, ownership, litigation, and sanctions—ideally via a full report.
How do I confirm a company is a real factory?
Verify the business scope includes manufacturing, confirm the address is industrial, review employee counts, equipment, and certifications or inspection photos.
What documents should I request?
Business license, bank account certificate, key certifications, and sometimes site photos or inspection reports. These should match registry data.
Can I perform checks without speaking Chinese?
Yes. QINCheck handles translation, registry searches, and documentation so international teams can perform due diligence.
How long does a full verification take?
Basic checks take minutes; a full verification report usually takes a few hours depending on complexity and additional document requests.
Need more guidance? Visit the FAQ or read Chinese business documents explained.