How we work, and how we correct mistakes.

What our guides and reports rely on, who checks them, and what happens when something on this site is wrong.

Where the information comes from

Official texts. Chinese laws, State Council regulations and market-regulator notices, and the Hong Kong Companies Registry's published guidance. Our guides link to the text each statement relies on.
Registry records. The National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (GSXT) is the official record of mainland registrations. Self-serve lookup reports are a translated copy of what a commercial data provider holds about a company's public registration and enforcement records, with the retrieval date.
Documents you send. For a verification, the licence, quotation, invoice and bank details you supply.

Reports keep these apart. Supplied documents, direct registry checks and commercial-provider records are labelled separately, and "no record found", "not disclosed", "not supplied", "not covered" and "lookup failed" are different outcomes.

How guides are written

Guides are written by our registry research team and reviewed by an experienced enterprise credit reviewer before they are published. A statement about a Chinese or Hong Kong rule links to the official text. Where we could not find an official source, we say so, or leave the statement out.

Each guide shows the date it was last updated. The date changes when the content changes, not when we fix a typing error.

What we do not claim

Nothing on this site is legal advice.
We do not give a score. A score hides what is known and what is not.
"No record found" means none in the source we queried on that date. It is not a statement that no record exists.

Corrections

If you find a mistake, email support@chinatherealdeal.com with the page address and what you think is wrong. We reply within 2 business days.

If we got it wrong, we correct the page and update its date. When the correction changes what the page tells you to do or believe, we also add a dated note at the end of the page saying what changed. If the mistake was in a verification report we delivered, we send you a corrected report.

Example: how a correction note appears at the end of a guide

Corrected 22 October 2026. An earlier version said the registry requires real-name identity verification to search. It requires a registered account for the full record, PDF reports and printing; searches go through captcha checks. SAMR announcement.

Independence

We are not affiliated with any Chinese government registry or with any data provider whose records we use. We do not accept payment from suppliers, and nothing in a report can be bought or removed.