Chinese Company Status Terms

A Chinese company status is a dated registration field describing the subject's current stage in the official record. It is not a general health score. Preserve the exact Chinese label, source, and query time before translating it, because English labels such as “active,” “revoked,” and “cancelled” can hide important procedural differences.

Active-family labels

存续（在营、开业、在册） is a common official presentation for a subject that remains registered in the active family. Depending on the authority or data source, a profile may show one of those words or normalize them to “active,” “in operation,” or “registered.”

This means the subject has not reached a terminating registration status in that source on that date. It does not prove that the office is staffed, the factory is running, licences are current, taxes are paid, the company is solvent, or the supplier can perform a proposed order.

Formal closure: 歇业

歇业 is a filed temporary closure, not simply a company that appears quiet. Under the market-subject registration implementation rules, a subject facing qualifying operating difficulty can file a closure period; the filing and legal-document service address are publicized. It can end the closure and resume activity, and changes to registered matters must then be handled.

The rules treat expiry of the filed period or three cumulative years of closure as automatic resumption; a subject that will not continue should apply for cancellation. Read Articles 40-44. A formal closure label therefore sits between active registration and a later choice to resume or exit.

Dissolution and liquidation

解散 describes a dissolution cause or decision; 清算 describes the process of settling the company's affairs before termination where liquidation is required. A provider may show “in liquidation,” “dissolving,” or a related status based on registration and public-notice data.

The current Company Law lists expiry, shareholder decision, merger or division, licence revocation or closure, and court-ordered dissolution among dissolution causes, then requires a liquidation and cancellation sequence where applicable. Review Articles 229-239. Do not translate an intermediate liquidation stage as if the company were already cancelled.

Revoked or ordered closed

吊销营业执照 means the business licence has been revoked through administrative action. 责令关闭 is an order to close. Both differ from voluntary cancellation. For a company, they can trigger dissolution and the need to handle liquidation and cancellation; the entity may remain in the record during that process.

This is why “revoked” and “cancelled” must not be merged into one English label. The State Council's registration regulation separately refers to revoked licences, closure orders, revoked registration, and cancellation, and excludes some such subjects from simplified cancellation. Read Articles 31-34 and 43-46.

Registration revoked: 撤销登记

撤销登记 concerns the registration decision itself, often in the context of false or fraudulent registration. It is not the same phrase or procedure as revoking a business licence for later conduct. The State Council regulation also provides for restoration of the earlier registration state when a registration-revocation decision is found to be wrong.

Record the authority, decision date, reason, and any later restoration or cancellation entry instead of reducing the history to “inactive.”

Cancelled: 注销

注销 is the terminating registration stage. SAMR's implementation rules state that the market subject terminates when the registration authority grants cancellation. The underlying identity and USCC can remain searchable for traceability, but the subject is no longer active merely because an old licence, website, email account, or marketplace page remains visible.

The multi-agency Enterprise Cancellation Guide explains ordinary, simplified, and special exit routes. The route does not change the need to distinguish the pre-cancellation process from the final cancellation entry.

Three common transition paths

• Active family → formal closure → resumed activity, or formal closure → cancellation if the subject will not continue.
• Active family → dissolution cause → liquidation → cancellation.
• Licence revoked / ordered closed → liquidation or other required exit handling → cancellation.

Real histories can include corrections, restored registration, bankruptcy, mergers, divisions, migration between authorities, and provider-specific intermediate labels. Use the dated event record rather than forcing every company into one simplified arrow.

Status is not the same as a risk overlay

A company can remain in the active family while also appearing in an operating-abnormality list, administrative-penalty record, court case, enforcement record, tax notice, or licence event. Those modules describe separate facts. See Operating Abnormality in China for that overlay.

Save a neutral status record: Chinese legal name and USCC; exact Chinese status; literal English translation; source and registration authority; query date and time; effective or decision date if shown; related dissolution, closure, revocation, restoration, or cancellation event; and any unresolved translation issue. Use that record inside the dated company-before-payment identity check. Scenario-based responses belong in How Chinese Company Status Affects a Supplier Check, not in the definition itself.