Buyer questionAnswered from the China side
Supplier approval: match the evidence to the entity you approve.
Your approval file should identify who you can buy from, what evidence you require and when to review it. Match the certificate holder, production site, contract seller and payee. A registration check helps identify the entity; it does not approve the supplier for your product.
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Match each document to its holder and purpose.
This page covers one link in the chain: the identity of the entity behind the paperwork. It is not a guide to any certification scheme, and we are not an auditor.
What an approved supplier program contains
Set approval criteria, required evidence, a decision owner and a review date. Your file may include certificates, product test reports, a questionnaire and details of any subcontractor.
Check the rules for your product and destination market with the relevant regulator or scheme owner. A general guide cannot determine which obligations apply to your purchase.
Supplier documents are starting points. Check who issued each document, what it covers and whether it applies to the entity and site in your order.
The step certificates do not cover
A certificate has a defined holder and scope. It does not resolve every question about your transaction:
Does the holder match your counterparty? A factory and a trading company may be separate entities. Record the relationship and obtain evidence for it rather than assuming the certificate covers both.
What is the holder's current registration status? Read a dated record; a certificate alone does not establish that status.
What activities are on the record? Business scope gives context, not proof of production or all required licences. Read manufacturing and trading wording in context.
What to check on the Chinese record at the approval stage
Each item resolves to a fact with a source and a query date:
Exact registered Chinese name and 18-character Unified Social Credit Code, taken from a photograph of the business licence (营业执照). Then check both against the register, since the photograph alone does not confirm them. How the company registration check is run.
Compare names and available identifiers across the documents. A certificate or payment instruction may omit the code. Resolve differences and obtain supporting records before deciding.
Read the current status and scope. Record them separately from any product, licence or site requirements.
Public irregularity signals: abnormality listings, administrative penalties, former names. Penalties in the same domain as your approval criteria are the ones that matter most. What a certificate can and cannot be checked against.
Check the payment relationship. A name match does not establish bank-account ownership or collection authority. Compare the payee and resolve differences.
Keeping approval current
A supplier may change its name, seller entity or bank details while a certificate remains valid. Record when the entity facts were checked, separately from the certificate's expiry date.
Set review dates for your purchase and any applicable scheme. Revisit changed seller or payee details before payment. Our registration-change study shows why dated records matter; it does not set a universal review interval.
What query coverage can and cannot prove
We queried a commercial platform for 45 manufacturers matched to Chinese entities on 21–22 August 2026. These are response counts. They do not measure how many suppliers passed approval.
| Record queried | Response | What still needs checking |
|---|---|---|
| Registry snapshot image | 44 of 45 | Read the name and status shown in the image. |
| Annual-report records | 44 of 45 | Check the entity, reporting year and contents. |
| Import/export credit records | 41 of 45 | Identify the exporter for your shipment. |
| Administrative penalties | 9 of 45 | Read the reason, date and status. |
| Branch records | 8 of 45 | A branch entry does not prove site control. |
| Capacity for your order | Not measured | Obtain product and production evidence. |
An image response is not a status check. The 44 snapshot responses returned images, not validated status fields. The separate anomaly and serious-violation queries returned no records for all 45; that is not evidence that all had no penalties.
An empty export-credit response does not identify an alternative exporter. Ask who will be named on your shipment and check that entity separately if it differs from the seller.
This is not a representative sample of Chinese suppliers. Branch presence does not establish who controls a factory, and no branch response does not prove there is no site. Read the sample and matching method.
How our record service fits
Our service supplies dated entity records for your file. It does not make the approval decision.
We are not a certification body or an accredited auditor. We do not issue, endorse or renew any certification, and nothing we produce belongs in an approval file as evidence of conformity.
We do not perform food-safety or certification-scheme audits. Consult the scheme owner for its required auditor qualifications and inspection scope.
We do not determine whether a supplier meets your regulatory obligations. That determination is yours, against requirements set by your destination market.
We report the source, retrieval date and limits of the records checked. Any separately quoted site visit has its own scope and is not a certification-scheme audit.
Starting with a supplier already in your file
If you hold a certificate and an invoice for the same supplier, check whether both name the same registered entity. Then confirm whether that entity is currently active.
Check the supplier details you have
Not legal or regulatory advice. Records are reported with their source and retrieval date; a record check is not an approval decision and does not certify that a supplier is safe or compliant.
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Official sources for this page
The disclosure rule was rechecked on 6 September 2026. Other links are background sources; consult the applicable text for your transaction.
- ISO 9001:2015, Quality management systems: RequirementsA quality-management standard. Consult the applicable requirements and your certification scope when setting approval procedures.
- State Council: Regulation on the Registration of Market Entities (国务院令第746号)In force from 1 March 2022. It defines what a registration records: name, entity type, registered capital, legal representative, business scope and address. Check other record types separately when your decision needs them.
- State Council: Provisional Regulation on Enterprise Information Publicity (2024 revision)Article 8 sets the annual reporting duty. Article 9 distinguishes public information from financial fields the company may choose not to publish.
Check certification scope and issuer separately from the company record. ISO explains certification and accreditation; not every certificate has the same requirements.
How we checked
Fill rates come from running our report process on real companies and counting how many of the twelve dimensions returned data on the date stated. The most recent query date on this page is 22 August 2026. Where a table carries its own date, that date governs.
The official pages we read are listed on this page with the date each was accessed, so every figure can be re-checked at source.
Being pushed to pay a deposit right now? The checks that matter before money moves take about ten minutes and cost nothing.
If you want these records pulled for your own supplier: select the relevant categories in the report menu, packs from $26.55. Delivery follows the window on your order confirmation.