You found a supplier on Alibaba, 1688, Google, or through a trade show.

The quotation looks good. The salesperson is responsive. They sent you a business license, factory photos, and maybe even a few certificates.

But one important question remains:

Are you actually dealing with the manufacturer?

This is one of the most common problems when sourcing from China. A supplier can be a completely legitimate Chinese company and still not be the factory they claim to be.

Before sending a deposit, here are several things worth checking.

1. Verify the Chinese company first

Start with the supplier’s official Chinese company name.

A basic company check can help confirm information such as:

• Legal company name
• Unified Social Credit Code
• Registration status
• Date of establishment
• Registered address
• Legal representative
• Registered capital
• Business scope

The business scope can be particularly useful.

If a company presents itself as a manufacturer but its registered activities are primarily trading, import/export, or commercial services, that deserves further investigation.

But this alone is not proof.

Some genuine manufacturers operate through separate trading companies, while some trading companies may have close relationships with factories.

The goal is to build a complete picture rather than rely on one data point.

2. Factory or trading company?

This is usually the harder question.

A supplier may have a real company, real employees, a real office, and real export experience — while outsourcing all manufacturing to another factory.

That isn’t necessarily bad.

A good trading company can sometimes provide better communication, sourcing, consolidation, and export support than a factory.

The problem starts when a supplier claims to manufacture something that it doesn’t actually manufacture.

Look for consistency between:

• Registered business scope
• Company address
• Product portfolio
• Factory address
• Production equipment
• Employee information
• 1688 or other domestic listings
• Photos and videos provided by the supplier

A company selling an unusually wide range of unrelated products can also be a signal worth investigating.

3. Check the supplier’s footprint inside China

Overseas buyers often only see the supplier’s English-facing presence.

But sometimes the more useful information is on the Chinese side.

For example, a supplier may have:

• Chinese corporate registration records
• 1688 listings
• Domestic marketplace accounts
• Chinese-language websites
• Different registered addresses
• Related companies
• Historical business information

Comparing the supplier’s international presence with its domestic footprint can reveal inconsistencies that aren’t obvious from an Alibaba page or English website.

4. Check who you’re actually paying

This is one of the most important checks before sending money.

Compare the company you believe you’re buying from with:

• The company on the quotation
• The company on the contract
• The beneficiary on the bank account
• The company on the business license
• The company issuing commercial documents

Different names don’t automatically mean fraud. Chinese suppliers sometimes use affiliated export companies or Hong Kong entities for international transactions.

But you should understand why the entities are different before you pay.

If nobody can clearly explain the relationship, investigate further.

5. Ask for evidence, not just documents

Certificates and business licenses are useful.

But when you’re trying to determine whether someone actually manufactures your product, operational evidence can be more valuable.

Ask for things such as:

• Current production videos
• Production equipment
• Raw materials
• Packaging areas
• Warehouse inventory
• Production of products similar to yours
• A live video call from the production floor

Instead of asking:

“Can you send me a factory video?”

Try asking for something specific:

“Can you show me the production line for this product on a live video call?”

It’s much harder to prepare generic marketing material for a specific real-time request.

6. Order samples before making a large commitment

Even after checking the company, don’t skip the sample stage.

For important products, consider getting samples from several suppliers.

You can compare:

• Product quality
• Packaging
• Specifications
• Communication
• Lead time
• Consistency
• Actual product versus advertised product

If you’re outside China, samples from multiple suppliers can also be sent to one location in China first.

They can then be inspected, photographed, compared, or consolidated into one international shipment.

This can be especially useful when evaluating several factories at the same time.

7. For larger orders, physically verify the factory

There is a limit to what you can verify online.

If you’re preparing to place a significant order, develop a custom product, or enter a long-term supplier relationship, an on-site visit may be worth the cost.

A factory visit can help verify:

• Whether the factory actually exists
• Whether the supplier operates there
• Production equipment
• Current production activity
• Warehouse conditions
• Approximate production capacity
• Quality-control processes
• Whether the facility matches what you’ve been shown online

You don’t necessarily need to fly to China yourself.

A local representative can visit the location, speak with the supplier, take photos and videos, and report what they actually find.

A Real Company Doesn’t Always Mean a Real Factory

This is the most important takeaway.

Supplier verification isn’t simply about asking, “Is this company real?”

A better set of questions is:

Who am I actually dealing with?

Who manufactures my product?

Where will my money go?

Does the evidence support what I’ve been told?

A supplier can pass a basic company-registration check and still misrepresent its manufacturing capabilities.

Verification works best when you combine corporate records, domestic information, supplier communication, product samples, and — when necessary — physical inspection.

Already Found a Supplier? Send It to ChinaDone.

If you’ve already found a Chinese supplier but aren’t sure who you’re dealing with, you don’t have to investigate everything yourself.

Send ChinaDone:

The company name, website, Alibaba/1688 link, business license, or whatever information you currently have.

We can help check the company from the China side and tell you what we find.

If you need more certainty, we can also help communicate with the supplier, collect samples, request additional evidence, or coordinate an on-site visit.

You don’t need to hire a full sourcing agency. Start with one small task.

Before paying a new Chinese supplier, one of the simplest checks you can make is to verify its business license.

A Chinese business license — 营业执照 (yíngyè zhízhào) — gives you the legal identity behind the company you are dealing with. More importantly, the information on the document can be compared with China’s public enterprise records.

But there is an important distinction:

A valid business license tells you that a company exists. It does not automatically tell you that the supplier is reliable, owns the factory it shows you, or can manufacture your product.

Think of the license check as the first layer of supplier verification, not the final decision.

What Is a Chinese Business License?

A business license is a registration document issued to a business entity in China.

For an overseas buyer, its biggest value is identification.

A supplier may introduce itself using an English name such as:

ABC Technology Co., Ltd.

But English company names used in emails, websites and marketplaces are not always reliable identifiers. A Chinese company may translate its name in different ways for international business.

The Chinese registered name and the company’s Unified Social Credit Code are much more useful when you want to identify the actual legal entity behind a quotation, contract or supplier account.

That is why asking for the business license is a useful first step before conducting deeper due diligence.

What Information Can You Find on a Chinese Business License?

Depending on the entity and license format, you will normally see several pieces of registration information.

For supplier verification, pay particular attention to:

Field	Chinese	Why It Matters
Company name	名称	Identifies the registered legal entity
Unified Social Credit Code	统一社会信用代码	Provides a unique identifier for the entity
Legal representative	法定代表人	Helps identify the registered legal representative
Company type	类型	Shows the type of registered entity
Registered address	住所	Gives you another point to compare with supplier claims
Registered capital	注册资本	Provides registration context, but should not be treated as proof of financial strength
Establishment date	成立日期	Shows when the entity was established
Business scope	经营范围	Helps you understand the activities recorded for the business

The exact information displayed can vary, so don’t treat this as a universal visual checklist for every license.

Instead, focus on whether the key information on the document is consistent with the current public registration record.

What Is the Unified Social Credit Code?

One of the most useful fields is:

统一社会信用代码 — Unified Social Credit Code (USCC)

For entities assigned a USCC, it is an 18-character identifier used to identify the registered organization.

If you are trying to verify a Chinese company, this code is extremely useful because company names can be translated, abbreviated or typed incorrectly, while the USCC gives you a much more precise identifier.

For example, imagine a supplier uses three slightly different English names:

ABC Biotech
ABC Biotechnology Co., Ltd.
ABC Bio-Tech China

Trying to decide which one is the “real” company from the English names alone can be difficult.

The Chinese legal name and USCC give you a much stronger starting point.

Current supplier-verification guides also consistently emphasize using the Chinese registered name and USCC rather than relying only on a supplier’s English trading name.

How to Verify a Chinese Business License

The basic process is relatively straightforward.

Step 1: Ask for a Clear Copy of the Business License

Ask the supplier to send you a readable copy of its current business license.

You want to be able to clearly identify at least:

• the Chinese company name;
• the Unified Social Credit Code;
• the registered address;
• the legal representative;
• the establishment date;
• and the business scope.

Don’t rely only on information copied into an email or quotation.

Work from the actual company details.

Step 2: Identify the Chinese Legal Company Name

This is one of the most important steps.

Suppose a supplier tells you:

Sunshine Ingredients International Ltd.

That may be the name it uses overseas.

The business license may instead show something like:

苏州XX生物科技有限公司

For verification purposes, the Chinese registered name is the more useful identifier.

This matters especially when the supplier’s website, Alibaba page, email signature, invoice and bank information use slightly different English names.

Different English wording is not automatically a red flag.

But you need to understand which Chinese legal entity is actually behind the transaction.

Step 3: Find the Unified Social Credit Code

Look for:

统一社会信用代码

Record the complete code exactly as shown.

For companies with an 18-character USCC, this is usually the easiest identifier to use when cross-checking public registration information.

Step 4: Search the Official Enterprise Information System

China operates the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System — 国家企业信用信息公示系统.

National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System

The system allows searches using information such as the enterprise name or Unified Social Credit Code.

The interface is primarily designed for Chinese users, so overseas buyers may find it less convenient than commercial company-information tools.

Once you locate the company, don’t stop simply because a search result appears.

The next step is comparison.

What Should You Compare?

Compare the information you received from the supplier with the registration information you can verify.

At minimum, look for consistency across:

Business license → public registration information → quotation → contract → invoice → payment instructions

1. Company Name

Does the Chinese registered company name correspond to the company whose license you received?

Pay particular attention when multiple related companies appear during negotiations.

For example:

Sales contact: Company A
Business license: Company B
Contract: Company B
Payment beneficiary: Company C

There may be a legitimate explanation.

But you should understand the relationship before sending money, not afterward.

2. Unified Social Credit Code

The code on the document should correspond to the same registered entity you find in the public record.

If the company name and code point to different entities, stop and clarify the discrepancy.

3. Company Status

Check the current registration status shown in the public information.

A document can be an old copy.

What matters is not merely whether the PDF looks genuine, but whether the underlying entity and its current registration information are consistent.

4. Registered Address

Compare the registered address with other information you have.

However, don’t immediately conclude that a supplier is fake simply because:

registered address ≠ factory address

Those can legitimately be different.

Instead, treat the difference as another question to investigate:

Where is the registered company located?
Where is the actual production facility?
Who owns or operates that facility?

This becomes particularly important when a supplier claims to be a manufacturer.

5. Business Scope

Look at the company’s registered business scope — 经营范围.

This can provide useful context about what the entity is registered to do.

But avoid oversimplifying it.

A business scope alone does not prove that the supplier physically manufactures a particular product, and reading it without context can lead to incorrect conclusions.

Use it as one part of the overall company check.

Chinese Company Name vs. English Company Name

This deserves special attention because it causes a lot of confusion for overseas buyers.

The English name you see on:

• Alibaba;
• a supplier website;
• LinkedIn;
• a quotation;
• packaging;
• or an email signature

may not function as the company’s primary legal identifier in Chinese registration records.

For example, one company might use:

Jiangsu Green Life Ingredients Co., Ltd.

while its registered Chinese name is:

江苏XX生物科技有限公司

A literal translation may not even produce exactly the same English wording.

So when verifying a supplier, don’t search only for the English name and assume that no result means the company doesn’t exist.

Start with:

Chinese registered company name + Unified Social Credit Code.

Red Flags Worth Investigating

A single inconsistency does not automatically mean fraud.

But several inconsistencies together deserve attention.

Some practical warning signs include:

• The supplier is reluctant to provide its business license.
• The company name on the license is unrelated to the entity you have been negotiating with.
• The USCC does not correspond to the company information you find.
• Important registration information differs from the document provided.
• The supplier repeatedly changes the company that will receive payment.
• The company on the contract is different from the company requesting payment, without a clear explanation.
• The supplier claims to own a factory but cannot clearly explain the relationship between the registered company and the manufacturing site.
• Other documents contain inconsistent Chinese company names.

The goal is not to find one magic red flag.

It is to determine whether the pieces of the transaction tell a consistent story.

Does a Valid Business License Mean the Supplier Is Safe?

No.

This is probably the most important point in the entire guide.

A successful business-license check can help confirm the identity and public registration information of a company.

It does not, by itself, prove:

• that the company owns a factory;
• that the salesperson contacting you is authorized to represent it;
• that the bank account belongs to the expected transaction entity;
• that the supplier can manufacture your product;
• that its quality system is reliable;
• that certifications provided are genuine;
• that it has sufficient production capacity;
• or that it will deliver your order as promised.

A valid registration is a useful piece of evidence.

It is not a guarantee of commercial reliability.

Current verification guidance makes the same distinction: company-registration verification and factory/capability verification are separate stages.

What Should You Check After the Business License?

The amount of due diligence should depend on the size and risk of the transaction.

For a small sample order, you may decide that basic verification is enough.

For a significant deposit or long-term supplier relationship, you may want to go further.

That could include checking:

• whether the quotation and contract use the expected legal entity;
• whether payment information makes sense in relation to that entity;
• supplier history and public company information;
• relevant certificates or product documentation;
• samples;
• production capability;
• factory evidence;
• and, where appropriate, an inspection or factory audit.

The bigger the commitment, the less sense it makes to rely on a single document.

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