Ask any supplier for their license and they will send a photo of a framed certificate within the hour. It looks official: a red stamp, a national emblem, columns of Chinese. Most foreign buyers glance at it, see a big registered-capital number, and move on. That is exactly the mistake. A Chinese business license (营业执照, yìngyè zhízào) is a real document, but it proves far less than people assume, and some of its fields actively mislead you if you read them the way you would read a Western company extract. I do this kind of checking myself, so here is how I actually work through one, field by field.
The one field that matters most: the credit code
At the top is the Unified Social Credit Code (统一社会信用代码): eighteen characters that act as the company's permanent ID number, unique nationwide. Treat this as the single most useful line on the page, because it is the key you look the company up by. A photo of a license can be edited; the public registry cannot. Take that code and check it against the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, the official government registry where every legally registered company in China has a record. If the code does not resolve, or the name does not match, the document in front of you is worthless regardless of how good the stamp looks.
Registered capital is a promise, not money
The 注册资本 field, registered capital, is where buyers get seduced. A supplier shows "RMB 50,000,000" and seems like a serious operation. Since China moved to a subscription system, registered capital is usually an amount the owners have promised to contribute over a period of years, not cash sitting in a bank account. A company can register a huge figure and have paid in very little of it. Never read a large registered-capital number as financial strength. It is a claim about intent, and it costs nothing to write a big number when you register. Recent rules now require that subscribed capital actually be paid in within five years, yet the figure on the license still describes a promise rather than money sitting in the bank.
What the business scope field really lists
The 经营范围, business scope, lists the activities the company is registered for. This is where a common red flag hides. If the "factory" you are vetting is registered as a trading or commerce company (贸易, 商贸), and its scope contains no words for production or manufacturing (生产, 制造), then what you are dealing with is very likely a middleman, not the plant. That is not automatically a problem, plenty of traders are honest, but you need to know whether your money goes to a producer or to someone adding a margin between you and the producer.
Legal representative, status and dates
The 法定代表人, legal representative, is the person who carries legal responsibility for the entity. Note the name; it should be consistent across the license, the registry and any contracts. Check the 成立日期, establishment date: a company formed a few months ago has no track record, no matter how new and shiny the office looks. And check the registration status in the registry itself: a company can be 存续 or 在营 (active), or 吊销 (revoked by the authorities) or 注销 (cancelled). A revoked company can still wave an old framed license at you. The registry status, not the frame on the wall, is the truth.
The registered address is a mailing address
The 住所 field is where the company is registered. It is frequently an office tower or an agent's address, not the place where anything is manufactured. Plenty of legitimate suppliers operate a factory at one address and register at another. So the address on the license is a starting point to verify, never proof of a factory. If it matters where production actually happens, that address has to be looked at in person.
- An entity with that credit code is registered with the authorities.
- Its registered name, legal representative, establishment date and scope.
- Nothing about capacity, quality, output, financial health, or honesty.
- Registered capital is subscribed, not necessarily paid in, so treat it as a claim.
- The registered address is where it is filed, not proof a factory exists there.
So what is a license actually good for?
It is a starting point, not a conclusion. Read it to extract the credit code, then confirm everything against the public registry, and hold the remaining fields as claims to be tested rather than facts to be trusted. The gap between "registered as a manufacturer" and "actually manufacturing your product, at that address, this week" is exactly the gap a document cannot close.
Closing that gap is where an on-the-ground check comes in: confirming the site exists, that it is producing, and that what is on the paperwork matches what is behind the gate. If you want that done and documented, with timestamped photos and a written report, send the task through the order form. A written quote comes back within 24 hours, by email or WhatsApp.