Chinese Business License

A Chinese business license, 营业执照, is the registration credential issued to a market entity by the competent market-regulation authority. For an overseas buyer, its strongest use is identity: it connects a Chinese registered name and Unified Social Credit Code to a defined set of registration particulars.

What appears on a company licence

SAMR's market-entity registration implementation rules list the principal licence particulars. The labels below describe a company; partnerships, sole proprietorships, individual businesses, and other entity types use the corresponding responsible-person, contribution, or place-of-business terms.

名称 — Name

The registered Chinese legal name. An English trading name normally is not the licence identity.

统一社会信用代码 — Unified Social Credit Code

The 18-character registered-entity identifier. See the USCC definition for its structure and limits.

类型 — Type

The registered company or market-entity form. It is not a description of the supplier's trading role.

法定代表人 — Legal representative

The person registered in that role for a company. The field does not prove that every salesperson may bind the company. Read the legal representative definition.

注册资本 — Registered capital

The registered capital amount and currency for the company, not its bank balance, valuation, or automatically its paid-in amount.

住所 — Domicile

The registered address field. It may differ from an office, factory, warehouse, or return address.

经营范围 — Business scope

The registered activity wording. It needs context and does not certify capacity or every required product permit. See the business scope definition.

成立日期 / 登记机关 — Establishment date / registration authority

The formation date and issuing registration office. A higher-level authority is not a quality rating; the registration authority glossary explains the field.

Paper and electronic licences

The same SAMR rules state that electronic and paper business licences have equal legal effect. SAMR's electronic licence measures define the electronic credential as a nationally standardised document containing registration information and digitally signed by the authority. An emailed screenshot that resembles it is not necessarily the live electronic credential.

SAMR's 2019 format notice introduced the horizontal face for covered new, changed, and replacement licences from 1 March 2019. It prints the USCC, registration particulars, and a QR code designed to connect to public information in the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. Format alone is not proof that a scan is current or unaltered.

What the licence does not prove

A business licence is not a factory audit, bank confirmation, product certificate, export licence, sector permit, credit report, or guarantee of good performance. It does not by itself show current status, shareholders, paid-in capital, litigation, manufacturing ownership, beneficiary authority, or whether a product meets the destination market's rules.

The U.S. International Trade Administration's English licensing overview likewise distinguishes the general business licence from additional industry-specific administrative licences. Ask which separate permits apply to the supplier's actual activity and product.

How buyers should use the document

Extract the exact Chinese name and USCC first, then compare every material field with current official information and explain differences by date. A cropped image, red stamp, QR graphic, or polished translation should not replace that match.

For the field-by-field method, use Read a Chinese Business License. If payment depends on whether a supplied file is authentic and current, continue to Verify a Business License Before Payment. This glossary defines the document; those pages own the investigation and decision.