Company search in China

Welcome to Companysearches.CN, your specialized provider for China company searches and verifications in English language

Please order your search below entering the company’s full name in Chinese or English. You can also type the company number.

What is included?

A China Company Search is a document issued by the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System in electronic format. The original document is in Chinese and is named Company Credibility Report. It contains essential information for company verification purposes: contact details, current status, identity of shareholders and possible issues.

Our team of local information experts review the English translation once it has been generated.

Please see a sample of a final version of a China company check document. The Report generation date field is very important as company information may change on a daily basis.

How to search for Chinese companies

Searching for company registration details in China has been a major topic of discussion in international trade during the last years. In the past there were several different websites from each province and each one offered company registration search services. From October 2014 the mentioned central system was in production and it allows searching for private companies in all mainland China. Some of the local websites are still live and allow company searches but the trend is to transition to the new central system.

Now, as of 2025 there is a China company registration search website where anyone can conduct company searches in Chinese.

China company searches in English

There is no official Chinese company registration search in English language. We offer this service as a convenient way to check if a chinese company is legitimate. Our team is specialized in business and corporate law to make the search reports accurate while giving a clear insight of the Chinese company. Although there is interest from the Chinese authorities to develop a English company search system there are no announced plans to start this project. Official sources agree that it would improve international trade with China PRC including exports and imports but there are several limitations including the fact that the official name of Chinese entities is in Chinese.

How to verify a Chinese company

The report is a company verification from the official China company registry system. Chinese companies have to file their Annual Report covering a natural year within 6 months of the next year. Other These reports are filed by certified accountant firms and contain essential company information, contact details, shareholding details and financials. In most cases financials are not disclosed to the public.

In addition, chinese entities have to report other changes or modifications within 20 business days. These changes include secured loans and mortgages, capital contributions, equity changes, administrative sanctions and changes in business license. Government bodies reporting information to the system have 7 business days to file the information and it has to be published within 20 business days.

Timescale

The China company search report is delivered within one business day. However, there are many company checks delivered in shorter timescale. Please note that depending on the company these documents can have up to 50 pages or more and in these cases delivery time would be longer.

Company Search Contents

Cover

Logo and name of the official body issuing the document

Title of the document

Company name

Report generation date

Disclaimer

Public information section

This section lists information about the Business License

Unified Social Credit Identifier

Company Name

Category

Type of company

Legal representative

The main director of the company

Registered Capital

The share capital of the company (in Renminbi / RMB)

Establishment date

The date when the company was legally incorporated

Open for business since

The date when the company started operations

Open for business until

If the company has a termination date this represents when the company is set to dissolve.

Registration authority

Region where the company was originally incorporated

Review date

Last review date

Registration status

Current status of the company. This represents if the company is currently operating and if it’s correctly registered.

Address

Official registered office of the company

Business scope

The official purposes of the company and lines of business.

Information on promoters and funding

This section lists the promoters of the company. The ordering of the elements in the table is not related to the number of shares held. The table has 5 columns:

Promoter number

Promoter name

ID Type

ID Number

This is only available for corporate promoters in form of a USCI number.

Promoter type

Natural person or corporation

Directors and key personnel information

Directors, officers and administrators of the company are listed in this section. The table has three columns: Director number, Name and Position held.

Branch information

If the company has set up branches in different regions of China (PRC), they will be listed here

Modifications information

This is the table listing the changes, modifications and filings of the company ordered from the newest to the oldest. The table has five columns:

Modification number

Modification concept

The type of filing or change

Most common modifications are: Registration of management staff, Changes in shareholders, Bylaws registration, Modifications in Registered Capital, Changes of period of operation, Business type modification, etc..

Original content

In cases where apply it lists the previous value of the modified field is listed. For example, if the capital is being increased the former share capital would appear here

Modified content

The new value of the target field. It can vary depending on the modification type. In share capital changes the current value would show up here.

Modification date

The date in which the modification took place.

Liquidation information

In cases where the company is liquidated or it’s in liquidation process details of the liquidation would appear here.

Business licenses and administrative permits information

In order to be able to operate in mainland China all companies need to have a valid business license for the product or service they are delivering - that is the business scope. Please note that a business license can be temporarily or permanently revoked.

Business Licenses are issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) since 2018. After a company applies for it the license is delivered as a physical certificate which is the official license and an additional official copy. Companies in mainland China can show their licenses on request, and stores display them to prove the company is legitimate.

It's a good practice to ask for a Chinese client or supplier for their business license. However you can verify their license ordering our company search report as long as you have the company number or full company name in Chinese

This section lists all the business licenses and administrative permits held by the company along with their expiration date and purpose. It’s a table of seven columns as follows:

Item number

Administrative permits number

Valid from

If the permit has a start date it’s shown here

Valid until

Date of expiration of the permit

Issued constitution

The official body issuing the permit

Permits content

Details of the permit and associated project are described here. If the content is large it’s not shown directly in this field and an additional search has to be requested separately.

Here's an example of a modern China Business License. The document is in Chinese and its translation is included in our China company search report at the Business License section including the mentioned fields: registration number, full name, registered address, legal representative, share capital, company type, business scope, date of incorporation, etc.

Download a sample China company business license

How to know if a Chinese company is legitimate?

With a china company search report in English language you can verify up to date information regarding the company and its business licenses. This information comes from the official National Credit Information System of the People's Republic of China.

It's important to check that the business scope of the license covers the nature of the transaction with the Chinese company.

Business License Number

Each Business License in China has a number that is different from the 18 digit company number. If the license is lost or revoked and a new one is issued it will have a new license number. However the company number doesn't change over time

QR Code Validation

Since 2014 all business licenses have a QR to validate their authenticity online. Using the camera app of a smartphone a link pointing to an official website is provided and a verification report in chinese language can be downloaded. We provide the service of translating these validation reports

Administrative sanctions information

Details of administrative sanctions, if any. These include intellectual property violations, counterfeiting and irregular business practices.

Abnormal operation information

Details of abnormal operations, if any. These include failure to file Annual Reports or other required documents on time, publishing false or incorrect information or not responding to contact requests at the registered office. Repeated failures fall also under this category.

Serious illegal acts information

Details of serious illegal acts, if any. These include acts that harm security of the People’s Republic of China, social or public interests. Continued failure for more than 3 years in disclosing required information is also an illegal act. In these cases the business license would be revoked.

Selective inspection results information

A list of the company inspections performed by the Chinese authorities is shown here in form of a table with five columns:

Inspection number

Institution of inspection

The regional authority who inspected the company

Type

Type of inspection. Sometimes this field may be blank.

Date

Date on which the inspection took place.

Result

Details on the results of the inspection.

Legal assistance information

Details of legal assistance related to the company, if any.

Chattel mortgage registration information

Chattel mortgages are loans that use movable property such as cars, boats or mobile homes as a security to extend the loan. If the company has registered any of this type of loans they would appear in this section.

Equity pledge registration information

If the company is a listed one and there are pledged shareholdings used as collateral, they would be listed here.

Annual Reports: Information published by the company

This section contains information published by the company under its responsibility for authenticity. The most common information published in this section are the Annual Reports. These have a fixed structure although there are some fields that are mostly empty or “unpublished”.

Chinese companies have to file an annual report each year. Details on the annual reports are listed in this section. Number of annual reports available may vary depending on the company’s age.

Basic Information

This is a summary of the company’s main details and very similar to the Public Information section of the first page of the report but including additional contact details. Here are the field descriptions:

Unified Social Credit Code

Company name

Address

Zip code

Telephone contact number

Email

Number of employees

(usually noy published)

Number of female employees

(usually not published)

Operation status

(important field)

Corporate holdings situation

(usually not published)

Investments or purchase of shares of other companies

yes/no

Availability of website or online shops

yes/no (websites are listed on the following section)

Existence of external guarantee

yes/no

Existence of equity transfer of shareholders in the limited liability company this year

yes/no (if any of the shareholders has transferred shares during the last fiscal years it will be “yes”)

Business scope

(same as the one defined in the Public Information section)

Website and online shops information

In case the company has registered websites or online shops a table with four columns is shown in this section. Here are the descriptions of the columns:

Item Number

Item Name

Item Type

(website/online shop)

Item URL

(the url of the website or online shop)

Shareholder and contribution information

A list of shareholder and their individual contribution to the company’s share capital is shown on this section. The table has eight columns:

Shareholder number

Shareholder name

Subscription capital

(in multiples of 10,000 yuan)

Subscription date

Subscription method

(cash or other non-monetary assets like intellectual property or equipment)

Issued capital

(in case there were changes in the company’s issued capital)

Issued date

Issued method

(same options available as in “subscription method”)

External investments information

If the company has invested in other companies or entities, a table with three columns is shown including the following fields:

External investment number

Name of external entity

Unified Social Credit Code (USCI)

Company financial situation information

It’s not common for Chinese company to disclose their financials so in most cases this section would list the possible fields as “unpublished”. The main reason for this is that it’s not a mandatory requirement unless it’s a listed company in a stock market. Possible fields are: Total Assets, Total Income, Total Main Activities Income, Total Tax Paid, Total Equity, Total Profit, Net Profit, Total Liabilities.

This information is equivalent to an Annual Accounts or Financial Statement filing in other countries

Social Security Information

Although the number of employees is usually not published in the cover section, it’s possible to obtain an estimation by looking at the number of employees with retirement insurance. This section lists the amount of employees with Basic Retirement Insurance, Basic Employee Medical Insurance, Maternity Insurance, Unemployment insurance and Occupational accidents insurance.

There are other possible fields related to company salaries and payments but these are rarely disclosed. These fields are grouped in three groups: Company payment base, Amount paid in the current period and Company payment base (retirement and unemployment)

• Company payment base
  • Payment base of retirement insurance
  • Payment base of unemployment insurance
  • Payment base of basic medical insurance
  • Payment base of maternity insurance
• Amount paid in the current period
  • Amount paid in the current period of retirement insurance
  • Amount paid in the current period of unemployment insurance
  • Amount paid in the current period of medical insurance
  • Amount paid in the current period of occupational accidentes insurance
  • Amount paid in the current period of maternity insurance
• Company payment base
  • Accumulated amount paid of retirement insurance
  • Accumulated amount paid of unemployment insurance

External guarantee information

If the company has external guarantees with other entities in terms of creditor or debtor securities these are listed here in a table with eight columns as follows:

External guarantee number

Creditor name

Debtor name

Types of debt owed to creditor

Amount of debt

Repayment terms of debt

Guarantee period

Form of guarantee

Equity variation information

If they were any changes in shareholdings during the Annual Report year these are listed in this section as a table with five columns:

Equity variation number

Shareholder name

Original shareholding percentage

New shareholding percentage

Variation date

Revised records

In case there are changes in the annual records they will be listed in this section as a table with 5 columns.

How many Chinese companies exist?

According to the Fourth National Economic Census that was collected in 2018 there are 18.57 million companies, defined as corporate enterprises. Total legal entities is 21.789 million.

Company number verification

A company number in Mainland China has 18 digits and it's issued by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC), State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) or other government bodies depending on the type of entity and when it was incorporated. It's composed mostly of numbers but it may contain letters as well. This number is displayed on the company's business license and certificates and it has several English names depending on the translation:

USCI

Unified Social Credit Identifier or Unified Social Credit Indicator

USCC

Unified Social Credit Code

USCN

Unified Social Credit Number

CBRN

Chinese Business Registration Number

TIN

Tax Identification Number

The number was 15 digits long before October 2015 but rapid increase on company incorporations led the authorities to upgrade the system to a 18 digit number to allow more flexibility. Also the need of other formats and issuers such as the free trade zones urged the change.

Here's an explanation of the different meaning of each section of the company number

Relevant authorities

There are a number of Chinese government bodies involved in China company searches. Some of these entities have changed their names over time as China's economy has grown rapidly.

State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR)

The local branches of the SAMR are the entities governing chinese company registration and keeping their records. This entity was previously named State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC)

Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM)

The ministry of Commerce has to approve the company's registration application along with the SAMR

Public Security Bureau (PSB)

The Public Security Bureau registration is needed to manage the company's chops (seals) which are essential for doing business in mainland China

China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC)

The government body responsible for listed companies

State Taxation Administration (STA) or Tax Bureau

All Chinese companies are required to be tax registered

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