GSXT Without the Mandarin: Four Ways to Actually Read China's Company Registry
GSXT — the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System at gsxt.gov.cn — is the authoritative Chinese company registry. Registration data, annual reports, penalties, shareholder changes, everything. It's also entirely in Chinese, the search only accepts exact Chinese names or Unified Social Credit Codes, and the interface predates the modern web. Here are your four options.
Option 1 — GSXT + browser translate
Chrome's built-in translation works, badly. Nav labels come through fine, table headers are readable, but company-specific fields (business scope, penalty descriptions) turn into word soup. Good for confirming the company exists and its registration date. Not good for actually reading the annual report.
Option 2 — Search by the 18-digit code
If you have the Unified Social Credit Code from the business licence, paste it directly. GSXT will return the exact record whether or not you read Chinese. This is the single fastest way to confirm a licence is real.
Option 3 — English mirrors and aggregators
Tianyancha, Qichacha, and 企查查 have English-ish interfaces that pull the same data plus court records and shareholder graphs. They cost money and still leak Chinese in edge fields. Useful if you check suppliers weekly.
Option 4 — A verification report
For a one-off check on a specific supplier, paying an analyst to do it is faster than learning the system. A FactoryChecker report includes the GSXT record verified against the licence, annual report data translated, and any penalties or 'abnormal business' flags decoded, for $129 flat.
Field-by-field translation cheat sheet
统一社会信用代码 = Unified Social Credit Code (18 characters). 法定代表人 = legal representative. 注册资本 = registered capital. 成立日期 = establishment date. 经营范围 = business scope. 登记状态 = registration status (在营/存续 = active; 注销 = deregistered — that's a scam signal if the supplier is still invoicing). 经营异常 = abnormal business (missed annual reports; a warning). 行政处罚 = administrative penalty.
What GSXT does not show
Bank account details, real production capacity, whether the address is a factory or an office. It confirms the legal entity exists — not that it makes what it says it makes. That's why we combine GSXT with satellite view, video call, and (for larger orders) an on-site audit.