Ask a Chinese Supplier for Its Business License
Natural English and Chinese request wording, acceptable paper and electronic formats, a fast intake check, and a refusal ladder for supplier onboarding.
Ask a Chinese supplier for its business license when you begin supplier onboarding, not when a payment deadline is already creating pressure. A routine, well-scoped request is easier for a legitimate sales contact to route internally and gives procurement a legal identity before contracts, invoices, and bank instructions start to diverge.
Send a normal onboarding request
Avoid opening with fraud language or a demand for “proof that you are real.” Explain the business purpose and ask for the minimum file your team needs. This English version works for an initial supplier email:
Subject: Supplier onboarding: business license copy
Dear [Name],
To complete our supplier setup, please send a clear current copy of your company's business license (营业执照). Please also confirm the full Chinese legal name and 18-character Unified Social Credit Code in the email body.
If the company that will sign the contract, issue the invoice, or receive payment is different from the licensed company, please list each entity and explain the relationship.
The document will be used only for supplier identity verification and internal approval. Thank you.
When the contact prefers Chinese, use a short operational request rather than a machine-translated legal letter:
为完成我司供应商建档，请提供贵司目前有效的营业执照清晰彩色扫描件或电子营业执照文件，并在邮件正文确认公司中文全称及18位统一社会信用代码。如签约、开票或收款主体与执照主体不同，请同时说明各主体关系。资料仅用于供应商身份核验和内部审批。谢谢。
Request four items, not an uncontrolled document bundle
- A complete, readable copy: all four corners visible, no cropped company name or code, and enough resolution to inspect the main fields.
- The legal identity in text: full Chinese legal name and 18-character USCC in the email body so transcription can be checked against the image.
- The transaction roles: which company will sign, invoice, receive payment, manufacture, and export if those roles are split.
- A document date: when the copy was exported, scanned, or photographed, especially if the supplier recently changed its name, address, legal representative, or capital.
Do not ask for a passport, national ID card, tax-system password, online-banking screen, SMS code, facial-recognition session, or the credentials used to control the company's electronic license. Those items are unnecessary for ordinary supplier identity matching and create avoidable security and privacy risk.
Accept paper and electronic forms intelligently
A straight, full-color scan or photograph of a paper license is suitable for intake when the fields are readable. A company may instead provide an electronic business-license file or an authorized display. A 2025 government market-regulation Q&A confirms that electronic and paper business licenses have equal legal effect.
The electronic version is not simply a photo of paper. The Beijing government's English registration guide describes it as an enterprise electronic ID issued under unified rules. The Shanghai download guide shows that first access and delegation involve identity-controlled procedures.
Ask the supplier to export or present the version it is authorized to share. Never ask it to hand over the live credential, password, one-time code, or identity-verification session. Do not reject an electronic file merely because it lacks the visual red authority stamp a buyer expected from paper; inspect the correct version and verify the fields independently.
Run a 90-second intake check when the file arrives
- Can you read the Chinese legal name and USCC without guessing?
- Is the page complete rather than cropped around one field?
- Does the name in the email body match the document character for character?
- Does the supplier identify the intended contract, invoice, and payment entities?
- Does a current company search return the same legal entity and compatible registration status?
These are intake questions, not a full authenticity review. Use the business-license field guide to locate each field and the license reading guide for a structured comparison. China's current Company Law provides the registration context for the company name, domicile, capital, business scope, legal representative, and specified ownership roles.
Respond to the supplier's actual objection
“Our license is confidential”
Explain that the request is limited to supplier setup and that core registration information is public. Offer your retention and access policy. If the supplier still will not send a copy, ask it to confirm the exact Chinese legal name and USCC so your team can perform an independent public-record match. Do not claim that a self-typed code is equivalent to receiving the document.
“This old scan is all I have”
Ask whether any registered field has changed since the scan and request a current electronic display or newly photographed full license. Save the old version; a name or representative change can explain history, but an outdated image should not be relabeled as current.
“The group company owns the license”
Every registered company has its own legal identity. Ask for the license of the entity that will sign or receive money, then document how the group, factory, trading company, or branch participates. A parent-company license does not automatically identify a subsidiary. The same applies when a supplier says a trading license belongs to the factory; use the factory-relationship investigation instead of choosing whichever entity looks stronger.
“We do not provide any company name or code”
Repeat the minimum onboarding requirement once through a second contact or manager. If the supplier refuses both a license copy and independently searchable legal identity, stop entity approval and do not release funds. The USCC refusal workflow separates communication mistakes and exceptional entity types from a genuine stop condition.
Close the request with an entity map
Consider a fictional supplier whose salesperson uses the brand Northlake Components. The reply contains a license for Suzhou Northlake Trading Co., Ltd., while the quotation names Northlake Precision Manufacturing (Wuxi) Co., Ltd. and the bank instruction names the trading company.
The buyer should not ask for “the real license” as if one document will erase the structure. Request both licenses, confirm which company owns the factory, state which company will sign and invoice, and decide whether the trading company is an accepted payee under the contract. The original request has done its job: it revealed the entities that now need verification.
Save the supplier's email, original attachment, file hash or immutable copy, receipt date, extracted Chinese name and USCC, and the result of the company search. Before payment, continue with the dedicated business-license authenticity review; a cooperative response is useful evidence, but it is not the final verification.