How to Verify a
Chinese Supplier
A working reference for buyers who have already found a supplier and now need to be sure. 38 field guides, organised by the order you actually check things in — from your desk, to the factory gate, to the moment before you pay.
Verifying a Chinese Supplier Is a Sequence, Not a Single Check
Buyers from Europe, the Gulf, Africa, South America and further afield all face the same risk, and the same method answers it. Most treat verification as one action — ask for a certificate, glance at a website, wire the deposit. The suppliers who cause problems are built to survive exactly that. Real verification runs in five stages, in order: confirm the entity on paper before you travel; read the gate, the floor and the people once you arrive; use video correctly when you cannot go; inspect the goods and tell genuine parts from fakes; and check the paying entity and the account before any money moves.
Each stage below links to the field guides that cover it. Every guide is written from real sourcing work, cites the official registers where a claim can be checked, and is honest about where a check stops working — because a method that cries scam at every shadow costs you good suppliers.
By the Numbers
What 13 Years of Audits Actually Show
These are not survey figures. They come from 550+ export orders across 45 countries — this reference exists because we kept walking the floors long enough to see the pattern.
Before You Fly
The supplier exists on paper and on a map before you spend a day on a plane. Confirm the entity, the registered address and the real footprint from your desk.
The Visit
The gate, the shop floor and the people receiving you tell you more than any brochure. This is what to read in the first sixty seconds and the first hour.
When You Can't Go
A video call can verify a supplier — or be a guided film. These are the rules and the live-proof checks that make remote verification real.
The Goods
A real company can still ship the wrong goods. Inspection, quality control and telling a genuine part from a fake — before the container leaves.
Before You Pay
The last check is the one that protects your money: is the entity real, does the account match, and are you certain nobody switched it at the last minute.
The Supplier Verification Handbook
The whole method in one PDF you can keep on your phone, hand to a partner, or work through on the day you walk a factory. The checklists from all five stages, the official registers to check each claim against, and the questions to ask when something does not add up.
- Every stage as a printable checklist
- The official registers, with what each one proves
- The score-don't-veto framework for weighing what you find
Two Ways to Use This
This center is written so you can run the whole check yourself. When you would rather have someone on the ground who does it every week, that is what we do — the same method, on your behalf.
Score the supplier yourself
Run the checks, then turn what you found into a comparable number with our scorecard — so you weigh suppliers on evidence, not on a feeling.
Open the ScorecardHave us verify it
Can't fly, or want it done properly the first time? Tell us the supplier and what you're buying. We verify the entity, the plant and the goods, and tell you straight — including when it checks out.
Ask Us to VerifyA Finding Is a Deduction,
Not a Death Sentence
Almost nobody walks away from a supplier over a single red flag, and neither should you. A separated payment entity, an office an hour from the plant, a factory with few machines — none of these is proof of a scam. Each is a point to score, a risk to price, and a question to ask. The only thing you must never do is carry an unanswered doubt into a payment.