Hi

Today’s post is about which Chinese cities are the driving force behind China's huge and growing economy. 

Guys who are serious about sourcing from China pretty much all know that China's economy is now the second largest in the world.   Do you know about the next bunch of cities with billion dollar economies? 

Are you ready? Let’s do it!

Who are We, Who is China Verification??

China Verification is a service for finding and verifying China suppliers. We have verified hundreds of China companies.

At China Verification we are both serious and passionate about helping our clients. That is why we prepared this post to help hardworking entrepreneurs - just like you? - to learn more about China's biggest urban economies.  

We are going to show you: 

• Where does the data come from?
• What are 100 Largest China City Economies?
• What Provinces have the most - and the least - big urban economies?

Where does the China City Economies Data Come From?

The Guangzhou-based 21st Century Business Herald (21世纪经济报道) published a report sharing data compiled by their "21 Data News Laboratory" (21数据新闻实验室) which listed the 100 Mainland China cities with the strongest economies. 

That report was widely reproduced throughout China. The data in this post is based on the original report by 21st Century Business Herald and refers only to cities in Mainland China. That means we do not include Hong Kong, Macau & any cities in Taiwan.

As China's best-known cities, it came as no surprise that this data identified Shanghai and Beijing as the cities with the largest GDP.  But, have you heard of

• Chengdu in Sichuan
• Wuhan in Hubei;
• Hangzhou in Zhejiang; or
• Nanjing and Suzhou in Jiangsu??
• 
  

We got you covered. Let's go deep.

The post The 100 Largest China City Economies appeared first on China Verification.

Can You Trust Alibaba Suppliers?

November 29, 2018

Last year we ran a simple experiment to find out whether or not our readers trust Alibaba suppliers.

Thousands of visitors to our blog received the automated message from our live chat software "Just a quick question, do you feel that you can trust an Alibaba supplier?".

The 109 replies we received gave us some fascinating insights into the difficulties buyers face when deciding if they can trust Alibaba suppliers or not.

Does Our Audience Trust Alibaba Suppliers?

We received 109 responses to our question "do you feel that you can trust an Alibaba supplier?" and the results show a very mixed picture.

Note that this wasn't a multiple choice question, so we have reviewed each response and summarized the results as follows:

More than anything, the results show that despite the incredible range of products and Alibaba's assurances, the majority of users still feel uneasy when it comes to trusting suppliers on their platform.

Our advice is to take everything you are told with a pinch of salt and when in doubt, verify.

Audience Insights

In addition to the above figures, our question also generated some interesting responses from our audience who shared some insights into their experiences on the sourcing platform.

Below we share some of their thoughts and experiences.

Respondents Who Generally Trust Alibaba Suppliers

Many respondents simply replied "Yes", but often the ones that had more to say gave a qualified (... if, or ... but,) answer. Here are some of the more interesting responses:

"Yes once some communication has been made and a clear understanding of the company is available but always buyer beware!!!"

Great advice - there are many good suppliers on Alibaba but take your time to build trust and clearly communicate your requirements

"Yes - I do research first."

Conducting research and requesting key documents from Chinese suppliers can help mitigate risk.

"Yes, I feel that I can trust an Alibaba supplier."

"Some of them yes, others completely not."

"I know that there are lots of genuine suppliers there but also a few bad ones. I don't have 100% trust."

This is the right attitude to have, it is important to be cautious.

"Some of them, yes, I've been scammed, but there are a few that I would commend."

Unfortunately there are a few scams running on Alibaba but you can take steps to avoid them.

Respondents Who Don't Trust Alibaba Suppliers

On the other hand, many of the users who responded in the negative were keen to add more details about their experiences. These comments give some great insights into the trust issues that buyers have using the Alibaba platform:

"No not at all. I just paid in full for a full container from China and the manufacturer is not answering my messages or phone calls!"

The dreaded silent treatment, hopefully it was nothing more than a delay.

"No, you need to check their history first before buying!"

Yes, take time to understand and verify the supplier and their track record.

"Honestly speaking I can not trust an Alibaba supplier if I don't do my own verification and there's a whole process on it. Unfortunately I can say that more than 60% of the suppliers shown in Alibaba are fake or fraud."

It is very important to verify that a Chinese company is legitimate and our company can assist you with this process. 

"I don't know, I was cheated several times"

It is important to recognize some warning signs that you might be falling victim to a scam.

"No, because we have been contacted by many and until now none was serious and they were unable to prove that they are genuine suppliers."

It is better to do no deal, than to do a bad deal or be defrauded.

"These days I can't trust any."

"Definitely No."

"I have a product that I want, but the supplier doesn't want to chat on the Alibaba website, only emails and demands Western Union payments"

Any suppliers that are demanding payment by Western Union should be treated with a very high level of caution, it is not a suitable payment method for commercial transactions. 

"No, I have just been scammed by a Gold Member."

There have been many issues with Alibaba's gold supplier membership scheme over the years.

"Not every supplier can be trusted because they send the sample and when we officially order from them, the item is totally different."

"No, most non-Chinese suppliers have not proved to be trustworthy."

This is a good point, not all suppliers on Alibaba are Registered in China.

"No, I would have got scammed today if I didn't do my research."

"It's not good practice to trust without performing any verification on Alibaba suppliers. We have been submitting our demands on Alibaba for the last 5-7 years and have found 3 cheating suppliers."

This comment is very revealing - despite these 3 incidents, Alibaba remains the best website for sourcing, as long as you are verifying your suppliers.

"Not really, most of the products that they claim to have been made in their own factories are just images that they have taken from another source. So the same photo of the same product is found to be on the mini website of 30 different factories. A lot go onto western websites and steal their images and claim as their own product. Hmmm I wish it was easier to find reputable suppliers."

This is a very good point and illustrates why it is critical to carefully do your research. There are a lot of suppliers on Alibaba who make pretty wild claims about what they can manufacture, but in reality are trading companies with no manufacturing capacity. The prevalent attitude is "Get the order first, figure out how to make it later"!

"Not really... Hard to find a trustworthy seller..."

"Nope, not all. Need to check some of them."

Verifying Chinese Suppliers

As reflected by the comments above, when dealing with Chinese suppliers it is important to verify that they are a legitimate company and that their claims are credible.

China Checkup's company verification services make this process super convenient and are fast and affordable.

Verify a China Company?

Order online & get peace of mind

Mainland China Company Basic Verification Report
Cost: $129 USD
Turnaround: 2 working days

Get Started

The post Can You Trust Alibaba Suppliers? appeared first on China Verification.

5 Ways to Check if Chinese Certificates are Legitimate

November 21, 2018

Have you ever needed to check Chinese certificates for fakes or forgeries? If so, you are not alone.

Regrettably, it is quite common for  unscrupulous Chinese companies to use fake or altered certificates, unfairly tarnishing the reputation of the majority of companies that may do the right thing.

In this post we introduce 5 techniques you can use to check whether a Chinese certificate is legitimate, so you can steer clear of the companies that hand out fakes. 

Why Do I Need to Check Chinese Certificates?

Through operating our verification service we unfortunately find that many of the Chinese certificates provided to our clients are not legitimate.

In fact more than 20% of the certificates we have verified over the years have been found to be fake.

The unfortunate fact is that some Chinese companies are giving their clients certificates that are not legitimate, and they are getting away with it.

One reason for this is that foreign companies often make the mistake of taking Chinese certificates on face value.

Another is that they can find it difficult to know how to verify whether or not a certificates is genuine - this article aims to help address this issue by introducing some techniques.

Identifying Chinese Certificates

Before you can check Chinese certificates are legitimate you first need to accurately identify which certificates you have been given (whether you requested them or not).

Many Chinese certificates, such as the China business license, contain only Chinese characters so that might not be as straightforward as you would imagine.

Fortunately we have previously prepared the article "How to Identify a China Certificate Without Knowing Chinese" which can help you with this task.

Five Ways to Check Chinese Certificates

If you are looking to check Chinese certificates, here are the 5 methods that we recommend:

1. Database Lookup

In the majority of cases, which tend to be for the most useful certificates, the first step we take is to lookup the Chinese certificate's details using an online database.

Happily, many Chinese registration and certification organizations have setup and maintain up-to-date online databases where you can confidently verify information from their certificates.

The problem is that most of these resources require Chinese language skills to navigate, and some even block access to overseas IP addresses!

Here are some of the online databases we regularly use to check Chinese certificates:

Even if a certificate can be found using database lookup, it still might be fake though. You need to carefully compare the data on the certificate with that from the database to make sure.

We have seen cases where a company has simply changed the name on a genuine business license or even changed their own certificate to make it appear they were registered 10 years earlier - for example 2008 rather than 2018! 

2. Contact Issuer

Despite the availability of the above databases there are still many occasions when checks can't be made online and the best approach is to directly contact the organization that issued the certificate.

This is is particularly true of shipping clearance documents - which usually can't be verified via databases, ISO certifications issued outside of China's accreditation system, and Chinese test reports.

Your first step will be to identify who the issuer is - looking at the certificate's logos and certification marks can help - and to find their contact details. This is usually possible with a Google search but you might need assistance if details are only in Chinese.

After that you will need to contact the organization and seek assistance to check the certificate is genuine. Finding the right number to call or email address to write to can be a big challenge, especially if the organization has limited English support.

3. Check for Contradictions

One of the challenges we face is that it can actually be a lot harder to prove that a certificate is fake, than it is to verify that it is genuine.

When a Chinese certificate's details don't appear on a database or the supposed issuer can't be found or contacted, it is a strong indicator of a falsified certificate but it isn't necessarily conclusive. 

One thing we have found though is that the people creating fake certificates often make mistakes.

Here are a few examples:

• ISO certificates should include a scope of certification but sometimes we find that the scope is missing or is seemingly unrelated to the service the company offers
• On a Bill of Lading the Vessel name, Port of Lading, Port of Discharge and Dates are specified, so websites such as VesselFinder.com can be used to check if the container ship is really travelling on that route on those days
• Test reports claiming that testing has been done to a standard that isn't included in the laboratory's scope of accreditation

4. Error Level Analysis

This is a more advanced technique that we sometimes use to identify certificates that have been altered using software such as Photoshop.

Every time a certificate is saved in JPEG form the compression process results in a little bit of information being lost - this is the error level.

So the way error level analysis works is to identify the parts of the certificate that have been altered multiple times, giving a strong indication that the certificate is a forgery.

Here is an example of a certificate which has undergone error level analysis:

5. Get Expert Assistance

The process to check Chinese certificates can be quite challenging due to the obvious language issues and variety of techniques applicable to different certificates.

Sometimes performing a certificate check can also be quite time consuming and it can be difficult to be certain of the results that you obtain.

This is where our Chinese certificate verification service can be invaluable. With our service you simply upload a Chinese certificate, place an order and allow us to make the checks. It is fast, straightforward and cost effective.

For more details see below: 

Verify a Chinese Certificate?

Certificate Name Here

Chinese Certificate Verification
Cost: $99 USD
Turnaround: 1 working day

Get Started

The post 5 Ways to Check a China Certificate appeared first on China Verification.

Chinese Company Registration Status Terms Glossary

 March 27, 2019

This glossary identifies the different Chinese company registration status terms that appear on official Mainland China company records.

If you are trying to find out if a Chinese company's registration has been revoked, cancelled or rescinded we hope the terms in this glossary will be useful to you.

Keep reading to find out about the various Chinese terms used to describe a company's registration status and get our English translations.

What is a Chinese Company Registration Status?

When we lookup registration records for Mainland China companies the status is listed under the term "登记状态" (Dēngjì zhuàngtài), which means "Registration Status".

Here at China Checkup we verify Chinese companies, and having viewed tens of thousands of Chinese company AIC records, we have found a wide range of terms used to describe a company's registration status.

Hence, this glossary provides a list of the various terminology used to describe a Chinese company registration status, together with pinyin and English translations.

Chinese Company Registration Status Terms

We've split this part into 2 sections - one for the terms which mean a company is currently registered, and another section which means it is not.

Tip: If you are looking for a specific term, try using the search function (Ctrl+F)

Terms that Indicate a Chinese Company is Currently Registered

The nature of these Chinese terms mean they can be quite challenging to translate into English, but here is our best shot:

Terms that Indicate a Chinese Company's Registration is NOT Current

Below are the terms we have found to indicate a registration has been revoked or cancelled. English translations are again our own.

Finding a Chinese Company's Registration Status

If you know the Chinese name of a Mainland China company and are able to navigate the AIC's national company registration website (only available in Chinese language) it is possible to check their registration status online.

Otherwise it makes sense to utilise China Checkup's expertise and order one of our company verification services. We can verify any Chinese company and provide a detailed English language PDF report direct to your inbox. All of our services are highly accurate, quick and cost effective. 

Verify a China Company?

Order online & get peace of mind

Mainland China Company Verification Reports
Cost: from $129 USD
Turnaround: from 1 working day

Get Started

The post Chinese Company Registration Status Terms Glossary appeared first on China Verification.

The post Countries with Freight Trains from China appeared first on China Verification.

China Phone Codes - An Introduction

January 24, 2019

With multiple international codes, hundreds of area codes and numbers of different lengths, making sense of China phone codes can be challenging.

Determining if a Chinese phone number is a mobile or a landline, and knowing where in the country it is located can be a useful way to better understand who you are dealing with.

If you want to learn more about China phone codes, including international codes, area codes (both 2-digit and 3-digit) and mobile codes, then this article is for you.

Chinese International Dialling Codes

Unlike most countries, China, for historical reasons, has more than one company registration system, more than one currency, more than one stock exchange, and more than one international phone code.

The vast majority of the country's population live in Mainland China, where the dialling code is +86, but there are also two special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau where the dialling codes are +852 and +853 respectively.

To further complicate matters, the self-governing island of Taiwan (a.k.a. Republic of China), considered by Beijing to be a renegade province, uses another dialling code altogether.

Here's a summary of the Chinese international dialling codes:

With that explanation out of the way, the rest of this article will focus on phone codes in Mainland China.

How to Identify China Phone Codes

You might have seen a Chinese phone number on a website, email signature, business card, quotation, invoice, contract, bill of lading, presentation, or any number of other documents a company could provide you with.

Here are a few examples to help you identify what are the China phone codes:

Example 1: China Mobile Number without International Code

150XXXXXXXX

(11-digits mobile number)

Example 2: China Mobile Number with International Code

+86135XXXXXXXX

(country code + 11-digits mobile number)

Example 3: China Landline Number without International Code

021 XXXX XXXX

(area code + 8 digits landline number)

Example 4: China Landline Number with International Code

+86 (0)756 XXX XXXX

(country code + area code + 7 digits landline number)

N.B. China landline numbers are always 7 or 8 digits long and the "0" from the area code is omitted if calling from overseas.

Mainland China Mobile Phone Codes

Mobile phone numbers in China are always 11 digits long (excluding the international dialing code) and start with either 13, 15, 16, 17, 18 or 19.

There are only 3 mobile phone providers in Mainland China and they have been allocated phone numbers with the following 3-digit prefixes:

China Area Phone Codes

Landline phone numbers in China each have a location-specific area phone code which is either 2-digits or 3-digits long.

As a general rule of thumb the 2-digit codes are reserved for the biggest cities and each start with a "1" or a "2". The 3-digit codes, on the other hand, start with "3", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8" or "9" and are shared among the provinces in a fairly logical manner.

If you are calling a landline phone number from within China you need to add a 0 to the number instead of the international dialing code.

2-Digit China Area Phone Codes

These are reserved for China's largest cities, including the municipalities of Beijing, Chongqing, Shanghai and Tianjin.

Surprisingly, one of China's 1st tier cities, Shenzhen, hasn't been allocated a 2-digit area code however.

3-Digit China Area Phone Codes

Outside of the major cities listed above, Chinese phone numbers each have a 3-digit area code. 

As can be seen from the map below, provinces are clustered in areas and share a common first digit - "3", "4", "5", "7", "8" or "9". You can see that these broadly align with the 7 different geographic regions of China.

Additionally, there are some areas in Guangdong, Shandong and Yunnan provinces which have been allocated new area codes beginning with the number "6".

Verify a China Company?

Order online & get peace of mind

Mainland China Company Verification Reports
Cost: from $129 USD
Turnaround: 2 working days

Get Started

The post China Phone Codes appeared first on China Verification.

Make These 4 Checks Before Sending a China T/T Payment

March 20, 2019

One of the most common ways to pay a Chinese supplier is to make a China T/T Payment, but it is not a method that comes without risk.

We regularly see cases where Chinese suppliers request payments to individual accounts, third parties, offshore accounts and offshore entities, rather than to their own Mainland Chinese corporate bank accounts.

Before sending a China T/T payment, pause and take a moment to make these 4 simple checks - they will help you ensure your payment is really going to the correct Mainland China entity.

What is a China T/T Payment?

The acronym T/T stands for "Telegraphic Transfer" and is an international bank wire transfer usually made through the SWIFT system.

In this article we are talking about telegraphic transfer payments made by foreign businesses to companies based in Mainland China.

Why Take Care With China T/T Payments?

Before sending a China T/T payment to your Chinese supplier it is important to make yourself aware of some potential pitfalls.

We have seen numerous cases where supposed Mainland China companies have requested T/T payments to be sent to individuals, third parties and entities registered offshore.

More often than not, the reasons for this are not disclosed and the Chinese companies are far from transparent about what is going on.

Following the four checks outlined in this article will help ensure that your payment is really going to the Mainland China-registered entity that you are dealing with.

Before Sending a China T/T Payment Make These 4 Checks

Follow these 4 simple checks to make sure your payment is really going to the Mainland China company you are dealing with:

Check 1: Is the Payee an Individual or a Company?

When you are sending money to a Chinese company you want to make sure you are making payment to their corporate account, not the account of an individual.

Key points:

• Desired Outcome: Payee is a Company
• Exercise Caution: Payments to Individuals

How to tell:

View the provided banking details and check if the payee is an individual or a company. If you are not familiar with Chinese names here are some examples:

• Examples of Chinese Individual Names:
  • WANG PING
  • SHI CHUANG GEN
  • ZHANG HONGYU
  • GU YU
• Examples of Chinese Company Names:
  • SHANGHAI NEW GLORY INDUSTRIES CO LTD
  • SUZHOU YANGPIN SHANGDIAN CO., LTD.
  • YUNNAN WIDGET MANUFACTURING LIMITED
  • WAIGUO (TIANJIN) STEEL CO LTD

Avoid making any China T/T payments to individual accounts wherever possible.

Check 2: Is the Payee the Correct Entity?

You have been dealing with one Chinese company, but when it comes to making payment you are asked to make payment to another company. Unfortunately this happens quite regularly for a wide range of reasons and is certainly something to be very cautious about.

Key points:

• Desired Outcome: Payee name is consistent with the company you have been dealing with
• Exercise Caution: When payment is requested to a different company name

How to tell:

Carefully confirm that the name of the company provided as the payee on the bank details is identical to the name of the company you have been dealing with.

Here are some places where the company will have previously given their name -  it is worth checking each and every one:

• Company website
• Trade website (e.g. Alibaba)
• Quotation
• Invoice
• Email signature
• Brochure
• Copies of certificates & test reports provided

Are they all the same? If not, why not? Ask! Any differences can be very significant and do need to be clarified.

The issue of Chinese company English names is rather complicated and there are circumstances where it is understandable that a Chinese company may have presented their English name in different formats.

On the one hand it is important to remember that in China only names in Chinese are official, however the company does need to provide an English name in order to use the SWIFT system.

If the payee company name ends in the text "Limited" rather than the usual abbreviation "Ltd.", the China T/T payment recipient is quite likely to be a Hong Kong-registered entity. It is quite common for Mainland China companies to operate a Hong Kong trading company and this article explains some of the reasons for this. 

Check 3: Where is the Bank Located?

If you are dealing with a Mainland China company you should be making your T/T payment to their Mainland China bank account.

Key points:

• Desired Outcome: Bank is located in the same Mainland China city (or at least province) the company is registered in
• Exercise Caution: Bank is located in a different province to where company is registered, or in Hong Kong or other overseas jurisdictions

How to tell:

The China T/T payment bank details you have been provided with will specify the name of the bank and the address of their branch which the funds are to be sent to.

This may sound obvious but it is worth emphasizing: Mainland China companies should be requesting payment to their bank accounts which are held with Mainland China banks and located in Mainland China.

In the vast majority of cases these accounts should be held at a branch which is in the same province as the company itself is registered in. I.e. if the company is registered in Shanghai they should be providing the address of a bank in Shanghai, not in Beijing or Hong Kong.

Another thing to consider is the name of the bank. Although many Mainland China banks also have operations in Hong Kong, they are named slightly differently and often have the text "Hong Kong" or "Asia" in brackets at the end of their name.

• Examples of popular Mainland China banks
  • Agricultural Bank of China
  • Bank of China
  • Bank of Communications
  • Bank of Shanghai
  • China CITIC Bank
  • China Construction Bank
  • China Everbright Bank
  • China Merchants Bank
  • China Minsheng Bank
  • Industrial and Commercial Bank of China
  • Ping An Bank
  • Shanghai Pudong Development Bank
• Examples of popular Hong Kong banks
  • Bank of China (Hong Kong)
  • Bank of Communications (Hong Kong)
  • China CITIC Bank International
  • China Construction Bank (Asia)
  • Hang Seng Bank
  • Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation
  • Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia)
  • Shanghai Commercial Bank
  • Standard Chartered Hong Kong
  • The Bank of East Asia
  • Wing Hang Bank

If you are being asked to make payment to a bank account outside of Mainland China you are almost certainly not making payment directly to the Mainland Chinese company.

Check 4: Is it an Onshore or Offshore Account?

Even if the last 3 checks come back positive you still need to watch out for offshore accounts held in Mainland China. 

Key points:

• Desired Outcome: Payment to a standard Mainland China onshore account
• Exercise Caution: Sending payment to an offshore bank account

How to tell:

So you're confident you are dealing with the correct company's Mainland China corporate account, that should be fine right? Not so fast!

Look closely at the bank account number you have been given. Usually it should contain only numbers and be 19 digits long.

However, if the account number has a 3-letter prefix (usually "OSA"), it is an offshore account.

• Explanations for the various prefixes:
  • OSA (Offshore Account)
  • NRA (Non-Resident Account)
  • FTN (Free Trade Non-Resident)

Another way to tell is that as far as we are aware there are only 4 Mainland China banks which offer "OSA" offshore accounts and each has a dedicated SWIFT code for their offshore banking unit.

• The 4 banks in Mainland China offering "OSA" offshore accounts are identified below:

Chinese Bank		Offshore Banking Introduction	Offshore Banking Unit SWIFT Code
	Bank of Communications	Link	COMMCN3XOBU
	China Merchants Bank	Link	CMBCCNBS008
	Ping An Bank	Link (Chinese language only)	SZDBCNBSOSA
	Shanghai Pudong Development Bank	Link	SPDBCNSHOSA

Note there are also many domestic banks that offer NRA accounts, including the Xiamen International Bank and the Industrial Bank, as well as some international banks operating in Mainland China.

What is happening here?

If a Mainland China company is requesting payment to these kinds of offshore bank accounts, you are actually making payment to an offshore company - not the Mainland China entity you thought you were paying.

This is how it works: a Chinese individual/company establishes an offshore company and gives it an official English name (and sometimes a Chinese name too) which is identical to their Mainland China business  That offshore entity then registers an offshore account with a Mainland China bank.

In situations like this the entity you are making payment to is often registered in a "tax haven" such as the British Virgin Islands or the Cayman Islands.

Why is this a problem? Because you need to have recourse with the Chinese company if & when things go wrong.

Here is a quote from this excellent article on the China Law Blog:

Before contracting with anyone, you should do your due diligence and make sure the party you are paying is not a shell entity or a sourcing company with little or no assets.

If you are being asked to make a China T/T payment to this type of account it should raise some alarm bells, and you are absolutely entitled to ask some hard questions.

Verifying Chinese Companies

If you have received a request for payment from a Chinese company and are in any doubt it is always worth performing a verification.

Our China company verification service can help you identify China T/T payment issues such as covered in this article - simply upload the invoice in question when submitting an order and we will review for you.

Verify a China Company?

Order online & get peace of mind

Mainland China Company Verification Reports
Cost: from $129 USD
Turnaround: from 1 working day

Get Started

The post 4 Checks to Make Before Sending a China T/T Payment appeared first on China Verification.

Which Bodies Manage Chinese Lab Accreditation?

December 11, 2018

Chinese lab accreditation is managed by different accreditation bodies depending on whether the laboratory is located in Mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan.

When you are importing products from China, requesting test reports to demonstrate that the product meets necessary standards can often be critical, and it is important for compliance purposes that these test reports are issued by accredited labs.

In this article we introduce the different bodies responsible for managing Chinese lab accreditation and show you where you can search for a Chinese lab. 

Why is Chinese Lab Accreditation Important?

Although many Chinese factories have their own laboratory, it is not ideal to depend on their results for demonstrating compliance of your products.

From my own experiences I know there are often issues with these labs, such as uncalibrated equipment, dubious test methods or negative results being fudged or overlooked due to production demands.

Unless a Chinese factory's lab has accreditation to ISO/IEC 17025 you should always consider the need for independent testing. This is especially important when you are dealing with potentially dangerous products and essential when you are considering product certification.

This independent testing should be done by laboratories that are accredited by bodies that are signatories to ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation); which is the international organisation for accreditation bodies.

Each signatory to ILAC agrees to their Mutual Recognition Arrangement (MRA) which means, at least in theory, that Chinese lab reports should be accepted worldwide.

How to Find an Accredited Chinese Lab?

It is surprisingly straight forward to find accredited Chinese labs. As part of the ILAC MRA program, accreditation bodies each publish a list of their accredited organizations on their website.

We have included a link to the applicable page on each bodies' website in our summary below.

Once you have found a Chinese lab that can test to the standard you require, the more difficult part can actually be getting in touch with them and making arrangements for testing.

In many cases it is much easier if you can get assistance from a local partner who can help manage the testing and communication processes. 

Chinese Lab Accreditation Bodies

There are 3 accreditation bodies from "Greater China" that are ILAC MRA signatories.

These bodies manage Chinese lab accreditation in the jurisdictions of Mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively. 

Here is an introduction to each:

Mainland China: CNAS

Amongst the plethora of Chinese certification marks, the CNAS logo is one to look out for on Chinese test reports as it indicates that the report is from an accredited laboratory.

• Body Name: China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment (中国合格评定国家认可委员会)
• Website: cnas.org.cn
• Email: info@cnas.org.cn
• Address: No.8 Nanhuashi Dajie Chongwen District, Beijing, 100062, China
• Number of Accredited Labs: >7,000 (in 2017)
• Lab Search Page: Click Here

CNAS accredited labs are each issued with a Laboratory Accreditation Certificate which comes in both Chinese and English versions and specifies the lab's address and registration number.

It is always a good idea to request and verify these certificates if you are in any doubt.

Hong Kong: HKAS

Managed by the Hong Kong government's Innovation and Technology Commission, HKAS provides accreditation for all of Hong Kong's labs.

• Body Name: Hong Kong Accreditation Service (香港認可處)
• Laboratory Accreditation Scheme: HOKLAS (Hong Kong Laboratory Accreditation Scheme)
• Website: itc.gov.hk/en/quality/hkas/about
• Email: hkas@itc.gov.hk
• Address: Hong Kong Accreditation Service (HKAS), Quality Services Division, Innovation and Technology Commission, 36/F Immigration Tower, 7 Gloucester Road, Wanchai, Hong Kong
• Number of Accredited Labs: 228 (in 2018)
• Lab Search Page: Click Here

Another avenue for finding information on Hong Kong labs is to contact the Hong Kong Association for Testing, Inspection and Certification Limited who are ILAC stakeholders.

The association's website includes a list of members. 

Taiwan: TAF

For a relatively small island, Taiwan has a lot of factories and a lot of laboratories. Accreditation of these labs is managed by the not-for-profit and self-funded organisation, TAF.

• Full Name: Taiwan Accreditation Foundation (財團法人全國認證基金會)
• Website: taftw.org.tw
• Email: taf@taftw.org.tw
• Address: 23F, No.27, Section 2, Zhongzheng East Road, Tamsui District, New Taipei City, 25170, Taiwan (R.O.C.)
• Number of Accredited Labs: 2,032 (in 2018)
• Lab Search Page: Click Here

Note: If you are searching for Taiwan on the ILAC website you will find them listed under "Chinese Taipei" - the same name as used for Taiwan's Olympic team.

How About Labs in Macau?

In Macau there is no specific body responsible for lab accreditation and this Special Administrative Region of China has relatively few laboratories. Some of the laboratories in Macau seem to be accredited by HKAS or CNAS.

The Macau Productivity and Technology Transfer Center assists companies in Macau to do product testing, by arranging for samples to be sent to Hong Kong and Mainland China.

The post Who Manages Chinese Lab Accreditation? appeared first on China Verification.