Active, Revoked or Cancelled in China

A Chinese company's status is a dated transaction gate, not a supplier score. `Active` allows the review to continue but does not approve the supplier. `Revoked` and `cancelled` describe different legal stages and require different responses. The right action also depends on whether you are considering a new order or protecting rights under an existing contract.

The State Council's market-entity registration overview describes a unified lifecycle that includes public registration information and cancellation. English reports may translate several Chinese labels as `active`, `revoked`, or `cancelled`, so preserve the Chinese wording, source, and query time. The Chinese company status glossary defines the underlying terms; this page focuses on the buyer's next move.

Capture a status snapshot before acting

Record the exact Chinese legal name and Unified Social Credit Code, exact Chinese status, English rendering, registration authority, source URL or report, retrieval date and time, and any effective, decision, liquidation, or cancellation date shown. Attach the current business licence supplied by the company, but do not let an old scan override a newer official status result.

Next, state the transaction stage: first contact, contract negotiation, deposit approval, production, balance payment, warranty, dispute, or renewal. The same status can create a different decision at each point.

Active: continue the review, not the conclusion

An active-family label means the entity remains registered in that status source on that date. It does not prove the factory is operating, licences are current, the company is solvent, or the proposed beneficiary is correct. Continue identity, capability, contract, and payment checks.

For a new order, compare the active entity with the contract, invoice, factory, and account. For a repeat order, check whether the status, ownership, address, and beneficiary changed since the last approval. Use the pre-contract entity check rather than treating `active` as a pass.

Formal closure: ask what will actually perform

歇业 is a filed temporary closure, not final cancellation. SAMR's implementation rules provide for a closure filing, later resumption, and a cumulative limit before the subject must either resume or handle exit.

Do not approve a new performance-dependent order merely because the company says it will reopen. Ask for the filed closure details, planned resumption, current staff and facility evidence, authority to sign, and a realistic production schedule. If goods are already in production, identify who is safeguarding them and whether another entity is now performing.

Dissolution or liquidation: separate winding up from trading

A dissolution cause or liquidation stage means the company may still exist while handling exit affairs. The current Company Law says a company continues during liquidation but must not conduct business unrelated to liquidation. The multi-agency Enterprise Cancellation Guide describes dissolution, liquidation and distribution, then cancellation as the ordinary exit sequence.

For a new supply order, pause and obtain qualified legal review before assuming ordinary trade can continue. For an existing deposit, warranty, debt, or goods claim, preserve the contract and payment file, identify the liquidation group or authorised contact, and obtain advice on notices, deadlines, and remedies. Do not replace the company with a salesperson's new entity without a new identity and contract analysis.

Revoked: hold new business and find the event

吊销营业执照 is an administrative revocation of the business licence. Under the current Company Law, licence revocation is a dissolution cause that leads into liquidation and cancellation handling. It is not the same as a completed cancellation.

For a new contract, deposit, or purchase order, place a hold. Obtain the revocation decision, date, reason, later liquidation or cancellation entries, and the supplier's written explanation. Verify whether the person contacting you has authority to address an existing obligation. If the supplier proposes a different company, treat it as a new counterparty, not a renamed continuation.

The State Council's registration regulation separately refers to revoked licences, closure orders, revoked registration, and cancellation. Do not accept a data provider that compresses those events into one unexplained `inactive` flag.

Cancelled: do not start a new transaction in that entity

注销 is the terminating registration stage. The current Company Law ties company termination to cancellation registration. An old website, email account, marketplace profile, licence scan, invoice template, or bank account does not restore the cancelled entity's current status.

Do not issue a new order, sign a new contract, or release a new supplier payment in the cancelled company's name. If the sales team says the business moved to a successor, verify the successor independently, map any asset or contract transfer, and replace the commercial documents. For rights that arose before cancellation, obtain transaction-specific legal advice rather than assuming the claim disappeared or automatically moved.

Resolve conflicting status results

A supplier may send an active-looking licence while a current search shows revoked or cancelled. Two data providers may use different English words or refresh at different times. First confirm the same Chinese entity and USCC. Then compare the exact Chinese labels, authority, event date, retrieval time, and historical sequence.

Do not average conflicting statuses into `medium risk`. Treat the latest authoritative result as the current gate while investigating the discrepancy. Preserve both results in the supplier approval file so a later reviewer can see what was known.

Work a fictional deposit decision

Fictional supplier `Harbor Motion` negotiated a USD 22,000 order while its registry status was active. Before the 30% deposit, procurement runs a new query and finds a licence-revocation event dated three weeks earlier. The sales contact says the event is administrative and asks the buyer to pay a sister company instead.

The buyer pauses the deposit, saves the dated result, requests the decision and subsequent status events, verifies the sister company as a separate entity, and sends the existing contract for legal review. The team does not decide that Harbor is fraudulent, but it also does not let an unverified substitute receive money under Harbor's contract.

Write a transaction-specific status decision

A useful note says: `Entity and USCC confirmed. Status shown as [Chinese term] by [source] at [time]. Event date [date]. New order/deposit/renewal is [continue, paused, or declined] because [reason]. Existing obligations are assigned to [owner] for [legal, finance, or recovery] review. Next query date or trigger: [date/event].`

Check status again at material payment and renewal points using the company-before-payment workflow. If the status consequence is legally or factually unclear, use the professional escalation boundary. Status tells you which gate to open; it does not make the whole supplier decision.