How to verify a Chinese or UK company before you pay or sign
Short answer: start with the official company register, then check court and enforcement records, then test whether the company's own story matches what the records say. In China, search the 18-character Unified Social Credit Code on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System. In the UK, search Companies House, which is free. Never pay before the bank account name matches the registered company.
Why check before paying?
Recovering a small loss from an overseas company rarely makes economic sense. A US law firm that handles these cases says that when buyers have paid around $3,000 to $100,000 and received nothing or substandard goods, "at least half the time in situations like this, there is no real company there." Checking first costs far less than chasing later.
How do you check a Chinese company?
| What to check | Where | Red flags |
|---|---|---|
| Registration: legal name in Chinese, Unified Social Credit Code, status, date set up, legal representative, registered capital, business scope | National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (国家企业信用信息公示系统, gsxt.gov.cn) | Status not "in operation" (存续/在业); company set up very recently; English name with no matching Chinese entity |
| Factory or trader? | Business scope (经营范围) on the same record | Scope covers only trading (贸易, 销售) while the company claims to be the manufacturer |
| Shareholders and related companies | The same register, plus commercial databases | Frequent changes of shareholder or legal representative; a web of near-identical companies |
| Abnormal operations and penalties | The same register (经营异常, 行政处罚) | Listed for abnormal operations, for example not filing annual reports or not found at its address |
| Court judgments | China Judgements Online (中国裁判文书网, wenshu.court.gov.cn) | Repeated contract or quality disputes with buyers |
| Enforcement and defaulter lists | China Enforcement Information Disclosure (中国执行信息公开网, zxgk.court.gov.cn) | Listed as a person subject to enforcement or a dishonest defaulter (失信被执行人) |
| Certificates the company claims (ISO, CE test reports) | The issuing body's own online lookup | Certificate number not found, or issued to a different company name |
Only a small share of Chinese companies publish financial statements, so a registry check tells you who a company is, not how much money it has.
How do you check a UK company?
| What to check | Where | Red flags |
|---|---|---|
| Status, incorporation date, registered office, nature of business | Companies House (find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk) | "Active – proposal to strike off"; registered office at a mass virtual-office address with no trading address |
| Directors and people with significant control, and their other companies | The same record (Officers, Persons with significant control) | Directors with many dissolved companies; recent unexplained changes |
| Accounts and filings | Filing history | Overdue accounts or confirmation statement; micro-entity accounts that say almost nothing about size |
| Insolvency and winding-up notices | The Gazette (thegazette.co.uk) | Winding-up petitions or notices of insolvency |
| Charges over assets | Companies House (Charges) | Debts secured on everything the company owns |
How do you protect a payment?
- Pay only to an account in the name of the company you contract with. A request to pay a personal account or a differently named company is the classic warning sign.
- Confirm any change of bank details by phone, using a number you already had, not one in the email asking for the change.
- For a new supplier, consider a small first order, staged payments against inspection, or a letter of credit for larger orders.
How do you protect moulds and tooling?
Factories sometimes refuse to release moulds, claim ownership of the design files or demand surprise "release fees", and moulds may sit with a subcontractor you have never met. Put ownership, location and release terms in a contract enforceable in China, mark the moulds, and keep dated photos and the address where they are kept.
What if something has already gone wrong?
- Check the counterparty is real and solvent: is it still registered, does it have other judgments against it, is it on the defaulter list? This tells you whether recovery is worth pursuing.
- Negotiate in Chinese, in writing: many disputes settle once the factory deals with someone who understands its position and its language.
- Escalate with the right professional: a China debt-collection agency (usually paid only on success) or a Chinese lawyer. For moulds, Chinese courts can freeze a factory's bank accounts while a dispute runs.