Every legitimate Chinese company appears in the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System at gsxt.gov.cn — the official registry run by China's State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). Searching it is free and takes about five minutes. You need the supplier's exact Chinese company name or its 18-character Unified Social Credit Code (USCC), both printed on its business licence. If a supplier will not give you either, stop the deal.
The registry
What gsxt.gov.cn is
It is China's equivalent of a companies house: the government record of every registered business — status, legal representative, registered capital, business scope, penalties, and blacklists. It is the first check we run at Bolang on every new supplier, before any factory visit or sample order.
Step by step
Verify a supplier in 8 steps
- Get the exact Chinese name or the USCC. Ask for a copy of the business licence (营业执照). The English name on Alibaba often doesn't match the registered entity — only the Chinese name or the code is reliable.
- Search on gsxt.gov.cn. The site is Chinese-only and uses a captcha; searching the USCC avoids most name-matching problems. (Browser translation is good enough to read the results.)
- Open the company record and check status (登记状态). You want 存续 or 在业 ("in operation"). 注销 (deregistered) or 吊销 (licence revoked) ends the conversation.
- Check the business scope (经营范围). A real manufacturer's scope includes production words such as 生产 or 制造. A scope that only lists 批发 / 零售 / 销售 (wholesale / retail / sales) means you are talking to a trading company — fine if you know it, a red flag if they claim to be the factory. A trading scope is not itself a red flag — transparent trading companies are a legitimate and often advantageous way to buy (here's why). The red flag is the mismatch: a trading scope behind a factory sales pitch.
- Check registered capital (注册资本) — carefully. Most figures are subscribed (认缴), not paid-in (实缴): a promise, not cash in the bank. Treat it as a rough seriousness signal only.
- Check the establishment date (成立日期). A "15-year-old factory" registered eighteen months ago has some explaining to do.
- Check the lists. Administrative penalties (行政处罚), the abnormal-operations list (经营异常名录), and the serious-violations list (严重违法失信名单) are all on the record. Any entry deserves an explanation before money moves.
- Match the address. The registered address should reconcile with where they claim the factory is. A factory "in Guangdong" registered in a residential unit in another province is a mismatch worth questioning.
Warning signs
The five red flags
- Refuses to share the business licence or Chinese company name.
- Status is anything other than 存续 / 在业.
- "Factory" whose business scope contains no production terms.
- Company younger than its claimed track record.
- Any presence on the abnormal-operations or serious-violations lists.
The limits
What this check cannot tell you
Registration is a floor, not a ceiling. gsxt.gov.cn proves a company exists legally; it says nothing about production quality, real capacity, export experience, or whether the photos in the brochure are of their own floor. That is what factory audits, video walkthroughs, sample evaluation and AQL inspection are for — the registry check simply makes sure those efforts aren't spent on a shell.
This is the first gate of Bolang's supplier verification process. You can run the same check on us — our registered details are in the Company facts box on our About page.