Hi 🙂 Today's post is gonna help you discover 5 great sources of information about your China business partner or supplier .

If you are serious about sourcing from China, you may have considered verifying your business partner’s details. Maybe you are not sure about how to go about verifying your supplier?

The 5 great sources of information about your China business partner will help verify your supplier’s business. Just how much detail you want depends on you, of course. .

We have been verifying China Companies for over a decade, including tons of experience with the Fortune 500. In this post, we share some tips and tricks.

Who Are We?

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

The 5 great sources of information about your China business partner is a great source for verifying China suppliers.

Depending on how deep you want to go with your verification process, you may find yourself trying to read Chinese characters.

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.

We are going to show you 5 sources of information about your Chinese business partner

The China Company
China Business License
The China AIC Database
The China AIC Record
The China Tax REgistration Certificate

1. The China Company

China Company is one of the useful sources of information about your Chinese business partner. Things you need to consider in checking your business partner’s company;

The type of China Corporation

Under China’s 2013 Company Law, there are two primary types of corporations. These are the Limited Liability Company and the Company Limited by Shares (the “Big 2”).
The vast majority of corporate entities in China are one or another of the Big 2

China Limited Liability Company
the limited liability company (LLC; in Chinese, 有限责任公司 or 有限公司) structure is generally for smaller businesses. Chinese LLCs may not have more than 50 shareholders. Ownership share is determined by the amount of subscribed capital of each shareholder; in other words, the degree to which each shareholder has a say in company decisions and a right to the company’s profits is dependent on the capital he or she subscribed to at the time the company incorporated.

China Limited Liability Company

the limited liability company (LLC; in Chinese, 有限责任公司 or 有限公司) structure is generally for smaller businesses.
Chinese LLCs may not have more than 50 shareholders. Ownership share is determined by the amount of subscribed capital of each shareholder; in other words, the degree to which each shareholder has a say in company decisions and a right to the company’s profits is dependent on the capital he or she subscribed to at the time the company incorporated.

China Company Limited by Shares
Unlike LLCs, A China company limited by shares (股份有限公司 or 股份公司) structure is generally used by larger companies, including publicly traded companies. (In China, a publicly traded must be a company limited by shares). A Company limited by shares must have a board of directors and a board of supervisors. Moreover, the shareholders must hold meetings on a regular basis. If a company limited by shares is publicly traded, it must also appoint independent directors. Shares of companies limited by shares can be transferred without any restrictions.

China Company Limited by Shares

Unlike LLCs, A China company limited by shares (股份有限公司 or 股份公司) structure is generally used by larger companies, including publicly traded companies. (In China, a publicly traded must be a company limited by shares).
A Company limited by shares must have a board of directors and a board of supervisors. Moreover, the shareholders must hold meetings on a regular basis. If a company limited by shares is publicly traded, it must also appoint independent directors. Shares of companies limited by shares can be transferred without any restrictions.

2. The China Business License

All legitimate China companies must have a China business license certificate. A China business license is a certificate of company’s identity issued by local AIC (Administration of Industrial and Commerce). The AIC is, basically, the corporate registration and management authority in China.

The China business license includes:

Registration Number
Official Company Name
Company Type
Registered Address
Legal Representative
Registered Capital
Date of Establishment
License Expiry Date
Business Scope
Registration Bureau

Your potential supplier’s China business license contains quite a lot of information.

From a business license in China, we can tell if the entity is legally incorporated. And actually, through the information in the business license, we can find further information, such as if this company still exist, is the company in any dispute or proceedings, or involved in other abnormal situations？

3. The China (Administration for Industry and Commerce) AIC Database

In China there is a State Administration for Industry and Commerce (国家工商行政管理总局 aka SAIC). SAIC is a central government body responsible for the supervision of business administration in China. Technically this is a national organization with local departments in every administrative region in China (generally each province and major city).

In China’s system of government, the AIC database performs a variety of roles relating to industry and commerce in each locale , which may include:

Anti-monopoly and Anti-unfair Competition Enforcement Bureau
Direct Selling Regulation Bureau
Consumer Protection Bureau
Department of Market Regulation
Regulation Department for Market Circulation of Food
Bureau for Registration of Foreign-Invested Enterprises
Department of Advertising Regulation
Department for Regulation of the Private Economy
Department of Personnel
Trademark Office

4. The China AIC Record

AIC records have important information about practically all China companies.

With so many government and administrative bodies in China, the AIC is super relevant for small- and medium-sized China companies. Why? Because the AIC record is the closest thing to a centralized, single point of truth about a China company. In particular, the AIC offices maintain official records for each company as it registers.

The AIC records are based on each company’s official registration records. (You may also have heard about “China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System” - this is where the company’s records are indexed. It is through this website that company registration records are available online.) Therefore, you definitely want to check out the AIC record if you want to know about a particular China company!

For more about the China AIC Record check out our post on Six Facts You Can Get From Your China Supplier’s AIC Record

5. The China Tax Registration Certificate

In. China, Anyone who produces or sells goods is obligated by law to pay tax to their local tax authority so they need to have this document.

China companies are required to apply for this certificate within 30 days after receiving their Business License. The China tax registration certificate is typically used in the following situations:

For opening a company bank account
Application for tax reduction, tax exemption or tax refunds
To receive and purchase tax invoices
When dealing with the suspension and discontinuation of business
Other related tax issues

There is no exact expiry date on the certificate

Note that use of the China tax registration certificate has recently decreased following the introduction of a new 18-digit Chinese business registration number.

If the Chinese entity cannot present a tax registration certificate, then you should really start asking yourself some serious questions about your ‘supplier’.

If the information the Chinese entity already gave you does not match up with the tax registration certificate, then again you should really start asking yourself some serious questions about your ‘supplier’.

What’s Next?

Guys 🙂 I hope you found today's post to be of assistance.

Like you know, we are serious and passionate about assisting hardworking entrepreneurs. If you think you want our help - drop a message, and we can set up a call to discuss.