How to check if a company in China is real? (Part 1: Registration check)

REAL – this word has different layers of meanings. A company could be a truly registered entity but conduct fake business or exaggerate its operational strength. So, the basic level of checking a company is to verify its registration information. Further check procedures may primarily focus on a company’s business and operation authenticity.

Checking a company’s registration in China is not difficult. Anyone can search the information from the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System by searching the company names or social credit codes.

The greatest challenge is the language barrier. Someone may only have the English name of a company which may hit no result, as the system and major business information third-party platforms in China do not support searches in the English language greatly. The search result is also in Chinese, which might be challenging to understand and further use.

Additionally, the connections from overseas to the sites in China might not be stable. Some search engines even banned access from outside the country two years ago.

Knowaco.com provides a tool for searching companies in China. Our services and deliverables are in English, and our analysts have extensive practical experience in forensic accounting in China. We offer as many ways as possible to improve the efficiency and quality of company search in China:

1. Exact search - With the formal Chinese name and social credit code, if a company is truly registered in China, the target company will be matched exactly.
2. Fuzzy match - With a Chinese or English keyword, a list of companies might be hit and presented to the user.
3. Exact search assisted by analysts – We have launched the name search service (free), targeting users with only English company names or keywords. By submitting a name research request, our analysts will try to identify the right target for your search. We have also maintained a keyword pool to match companies with English names and keywords. If the pre-search page shows a name research mark and a reference link to you, you can see the research details via a link (en example).

Our next article will discuss the next level of “Check if a company in China is real,” i.e., business and operation checks.