By SupplierVerify Team | Published: March 14, 2026
The most important supplier information — business licenses, court records, registration details — exists only in Chinese, on Chinese-language government portals. If you don't read Chinese, the verification process can feel impossible. But you don't need to learn Mandarin to verify a supplier. Here are six practical methods that work even if your Chinese vocabulary begins and ends with "ni hao."
This is step zero and costs nothing. In your first communication with any Chinese supplier, ask: "Please provide your full Chinese company name as registered on your business license (营业执照上的公司全称)." Write it down exactly as they provide it — in Chinese characters. Do not accept an English translation. The Chinese name is the key that unlocks every database you'll need later. A supplier who refuses or deflects this simple request is already raising a red flag.
If you can't type Chinese, ask them to send a photo of their business license. The Chinese name is printed at the top. You can then copy-paste the characters or use your phone's camera + Google Translate's OCR feature to capture them.
Modern translation tools have made Chinese-language verification dramatically more accessible than even three years ago. Here's a practical workflow:
The key limitation: AI translation tells you what a document says, but it doesn't tell you whether the document is authentic or what it means in context. A translated business license might say "business scope: sales of daily necessities" — but you need to know that this means "this is a trading company, not a factory."
You don't need to learn Chinese. You need to learn five characters. These appear on every business license and tell you 80% of what you need to know:
| Chinese | Pinyin | English | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|
| 生产 | shēng chǎn | Manufacturing / Production | If these characters are NOT in the business scope, the company is not legally a manufacturer |
| 制造 | zhì zào | Manufacture / Fabricate | Another term confirming manufacturing capability; often used together with 生产 |
| 贸易 | mào yì | Trading / Trade | If this is the primary term in the scope (without 生产/制造), it's a trading company only |
| 吊销 | diào xiāo | Revoked | If the license status is "吊销" instead of "存续" (active), the company is dead — walk away |
| 失信 | shī xìn | Dishonest / Blacklisted | "Dishonest enterprise" (失信企业) means government-blacklisted — absolutely do not engage |
Look for these five character groupings on the business license and in any Chinese-language search results. They'll tell you immediately whether the supplier is a real manufacturer and whether they have any major legal status problems.
For $15–$30, you can hire a native Chinese speaker on Upwork or Fiverr to spend an hour searching Chinese databases and translating findings. Give them the supplier's Chinese company name and ask them to: search NECIPS (gsxt.gov.cn) and screenshot the registration page, search Tianyancha or Qichacha for litigation records, search China Judgments Online for court cases involving the company, verify that the registered address matches the address the supplier gave you, and translate the key findings into English. This is more effective than AI translation because a human can interpret the results — understanding, for example, that "administrative penalty for tax underpayment" is much more serious than "administrative penalty for late annual report filing."
Language-independent verification techniques you can use on a video call with the supplier:
If the five methods above feel like too much work — or if you're dealing with an order size that justifies spending $49–$299 on certainty — a professional verification service eliminates the language barrier entirely. You provide the supplier's name. The service pulls Chinese-language government records, court data, and enforcement actions, interprets the findings in context, and delivers an English-language report with a clear risk assessment. This is the difference between spending hours stumbling through Chinese databases with translation tools and getting a structured report you can act on immediately.
Suppliers who serve international buyers often provide English versions of their documents. These are sometimes accurate. They are sometimes selectively translated. And they are sometimes outright fabricated. A business scope that says "manufacturing of electronic components" on the supplier's English translation might say "domestic sales agency services" in the original Chinese. Never rely on supplier-provided English translations for verification. Always get the original Chinese document and translate it independently — even if that just means running it through Google Lens.
Our Safety Shield report searches China's government databases in Chinese, interprets the findings in context, and delivers a clear English-language risk assessment. No translation tools. No guesswork. For a complete picture, pair it with a Reality View on-site inspection — our inspector speaks the language so you don't need to.
Get an English-Language Verification Report