Article · 11 August 2026
How to Find a Sourcing Agent in China (2026 Guide)
Where to find a real sourcing agent in China, what they cost, the contract clauses that matter, and eight questions that expose the pretenders.
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China supplier verification & factory audit guides
Everything we've learned verifying Chinese suppliers and walking factory floors in Guangdong — how to read a business licence, check government records, spot a trading company posing as a factory, and avoid the payment setups that cost buyers their deposit.
Article · 22 July 2026
Alibaba Supplier Verification: 2026 Buyer's Guide
How to verify an Alibaba supplier in 2026: gold badges, licences, court records, and the checks that prove you are dealing with a real factory.
Read articleArticle · 22 July 2026
Everyone on LinkedIn Is a Sourcing Agent Now
Hundreds of new sourcing agents appear every week. How to tell who has actually stood on a factory floor and who is forwarding your emails.
Read articleArticle · 15 July 2026
How to Verify a Chinese Supplier: 7 Methods
Seven practical ways to verify a Chinese supplier before you pay: business licence, GSXT registry, court records, bank match and site visit.
Read articleArticle · 14 July 2026
10 Checks Before Wiring Money to China
A field-tested 10-step framework to avoid Chinese supplier scams — the top fraud patterns, red flags, and the pre-wire checks that catch 95% of them.
Read articleArticle · 14 July 2026
How to Find Real Factories in China
Practical ways to reach the actual manufacturer instead of a middleman: business scope, licences, factory address and invoicing checks.
Read articleArticle · 13 July 2026
GSXT in English: 4 Ways to Read China's Company Registry
Read China's GSXT company registry in English without learning Mandarin. 4 practical methods, a field-by-field translation cheat sheet, and what GSXT can't tell you.
Read articleArticle · 13 July 2026
Chinese Supplier Court Records Guide — FactoryChecker
How to find and read a Chinese supplier's court and enforcement records in English, and which judgments should stop a deal outright.
Read articleArticle · 13 July 2026
12 Signals of a Fake Alibaba Supplier
Twelve warning signs that an Alibaba supplier is not the factory it claims to be, and the verification steps that confirm it either way.
Read articleArticle · 12 July 2026
Western Union Requests Mean It Is Not a Factory
Real Chinese factories invoice from a company bank account. Why Western Union or personal transfer requests are a hard stop, and what to do.
Read articleArticle · 12 July 2026
Real Factory or Trading Company? 10 Ways to Tell
Ten checks that separate a Chinese manufacturer from a trading company: business scope, capital, address, invoices and factory answers.
Read articleArticle · 11 July 2026
Supplier Vanished After Deposit: 48-Hour Playbook
What to do in the first 48 hours after a Chinese supplier goes quiet on your deposit: evidence, bank recall, and realistic legal options.
Read articleArticle · 11 July 2026
The Personal-Account Wire Risk in China Deals
Paying a Chinese supplier's personal account strips your legal protection. What it signals and how to insist on a matching company account.
Read articleArticle · 11 July 2026
Wrong Product Shipped: First-48-Hours Playbook
Your shipment arrived — wrong product, wrong spec, or wrong quality. The 48-hour evidence-and-escalation protocol that preserves your recovery options.
Read articleArticle · 10 July 2026
The '100% Before Production' Ask, Decoded
Why Chinese suppliers ask for full payment upfront, what it really signals, and polite scripts to push back toward a safer deposit split.
Read articleArticle · 10 July 2026
Supplier With Only WeChat and a Mobile Number
What it means when a Chinese supplier has no company email or landline, and the quick checks that reveal whether a real business exists.
Read articleArticle · 9 July 2026
China Factory Audits: The 5 Types Explained
Which of the five China factory audit types fits your order, from desk verification to a full technical audit, and what each one costs.
Read articleArticle · 9 July 2026
T/T Payment Terms With Chinese Factories
Is a T/T deposit before production normal in China? Yes. Here is the standard split, when to resist it, and how to protect the balance.
Read articleArticle · 8 July 2026
Wiring Money to China: 5 Checks First
Five checks between a safe payment to China and a cautionary tale: company account match, licence, contract, court records and staged terms.
Read articleArticle · 20 June 2026
Chinese Peptide Suppliers: Mostly Middlemen — FactoryChecker
Inside the opaque, middleman-driven trade flooding inboxes with peptide deals that look too good to be true — and usually are.
Read articleArticle · 15 May 2026
What We Check When Verifying a Supplier
The eight official checks we run on every Chinese factory — business license, unified social credit code, ISO 9001, export license, 1688 history and more.
Read articleArticle · 10 April 2026
Introducing FactoryChecker
Independent verification for buyers sourcing from China. What's in the report, how the process works, and why we priced it at $129.
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42-Point China Factory Audit Checklist
The 42-point checklist our auditors use inside Chinese factories: licences, machinery counts, QC systems, workers and evidence photos.
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Pre-Shipment Inspection vs Factory Audit
The difference between a pre-shipment inspection and a factory audit in China, when each one protects you, and which to book first.
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