How to Verify an Asian Counterparty in 48 Hours

The Chinese NECIPS Registry is the Absolute Foundation

Most Polish entrepreneurs stop at checking a website that looks nice but has no legal value. Real verification starts in the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (NECIPS). This is where we look for the business license number, which consists of 18 digits. If a supplier hesitates to provide this number for more than 4 hours, drop the subject immediately.

In October 2024 alone, we checked 34 entities from Guangdong province for our clients. It turned out that 9 of them had a 'suspended' status or were listed at an address where a sewing room, not an electronics factory, has been operating for 2 years. A report from such a system is in Chinese, but the key parts are the stamps and the date of the last capital entry. Don't look for beautiful descriptions there; look for the license expiration date.

If a supplier does not provide a license number within 4 hours, you are likely dealing with a middleman without an office.

Domain Verification and Digital Footprints

A website created 3 months ago is a red flag that must not be ignored. We use tools like WHOIS to check who the server is registered to. A serious factory from Ningbo doesn't change its domain every six months. In 2023, we detected a case where a company claimed to have been operating since 2008, but their website was created exactly 42 days before sending their first offer to Poland.

We also look for traces on local portals like 1688.com or Baidu. If a company claims to be an export giant and there is no mention of it in local trade media from the last 3 years, something is wrong. It often happens that a 'sales office' is just a rented desk in a coworking center in Shenzhen. This doesn't have to rule out cooperation, but it changes your negotiating position and risk level.

The Trap of Bank Accounts in Tax Havens

This is the most common mistake: the invoice comes from a company called 'Zhejiang Textiles', but the transfer is supposed to go to a bank account in the Seychelles or British Virgin Islands. A serious manufacturer from mainland China has an account in the Bank of China or ICBC under the same name that appears in the NECIPS registry. Any discrepancy in the recipient's name is a risk that your money will disappear without a trace within 15 minutes of clicking 'send' in the banking system.

At VRS, we always advise asking for a so-called 'Bank Reference Letter'. This is a simple document that a bank issues in 48 hours. If a supplier claims it is 'procedurally impossible', they are lying. We had a situation in July where a client avoided a loss of 87,000 USD only because a bank in Hangzhou confirmed that the account belonged to a private individual, not an engine factory.

List of 7 Sources You Must Check

We have prepared a specific list of places we look into first. Besides the aforementioned NECIPS, it is worth checking the Qichacha platform – it is a commercial database that aggregates court judgments and labor disputes. If a company has 14 lost cases for unpaid overtime in the last 8 months, it means its financial liquidity is hanging by a thread.

Other sources include customs registries and import databases like Panjiva. You can check there if a given supplier has actually sent goods to Europe or the USA in the last quarter. If they claim to be market leaders but the database shows only 3 small shipments to Uzbekistan, you have proof of a lie. We act fast because time is capital, and 48 hours is enough to gather and analyze this data.

Also, remember to verify CE certificates. Many of them are simply graphics made in free software. A real certificate has a notified body number that you check in the NANDO database. This takes 12 minutes and can save you from having your goods seized by the Polish customs office and fines running into the tens of thousands of PLN.

You can check a CE certificate in the NANDO database in 12 minutes. This is cheaper than paying fines at the border.