Translating a Chinese business licence (营业执照) for use abroad

A Chinese company’s only registered name is in Chinese characters, and since 1 March 2021 the rules have not provided for registering an English one. An English translation of its business licence (营业执照) keeps the Chinese name beside the English, copies the 18-character unified social credit code exactly, and renders all nine items the licence records.

Your Chinese subsidiary is opening an account with a bank at home, or the group auditors want its papers on file, and someone has asked for the business licence “in English”. There is no English version to order. The licence exists only in Chinese, and so does the company’s name. The English name on the letterhead was chosen by someone and registered by nobody, so a translation that drops the Chinese name points the reader at a name no register holds.

That changed five years ago. Until the end of February 2021 the name rules required a foreign-language name to match the Chinese one and to be registered with the registration authority.^⁠[1] The regulation that replaced them on 1 March 2021 lets a company register one name, in standard Chinese characters, and says nothing about a name in any other language.^⁠[2]

What does a Chinese business licence actually say?

Nine items, set by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR). The table gives each one in Chinese, a plain English rendering, and the point where translations usually go wrong.

On the licence	In English	What to watch
Name 名称	The company’s name	Keep the Chinese name, with the English rendering beside it in brackets
Legal representative 法定代表人	The person who acts for the company by law	A foreign national’s name spelt as in the passport, not transliterated back from Chinese. What the role means is in what a legal representative is
Type 类型	Legal form, for example a limited liability company wholly owned by a foreign legal person	Translate the words in brackets too: they say who owns it
Registered capital 注册资本	The capital the shareholders have subscribed	Usually stated in 万元, units of 10,000, so 500万元 is RMB 5,000,000. It is not the amount paid in: what registered capital is
Domicile 住所	Registered address	Keep the Chinese address beside the English, as a courier or registry abroad may need it
Business scope 经营范围	What the company is registered to do	Translate every line. A summary is not a translation
Registration authority 登记机关	The market regulation bureau that registered the company	Its seal is on the licence; say so in a bracketed note
Date of establishment 成立日期	Date of incorporation	Write the month as a word, so 2016年3月4日 cannot be read as 3 April
Unified social credit code 统一社会信用代码	The company’s national identifier	Copy all 18 characters exactly. It is not a licence number and does not change

The paper licence comes as an original (正本) and a duplicate (副本) of equal legal effect, and the electronic licence has the same effect as paper.^⁠[3,4] The current format follows the 2019 edition of SAMR’s printing standard. It carries a QR code linked to the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System (国家企业信用信息公示系统).^⁠[5] A translation marks it “[QR code]” rather than leaving an unexplained gap.

Does our Chinese company have an official English name?

No. SAMR’s 2023 measures add one sentence on the subject: a company that translates its name for use abroad follows the principles of translation and must not break the law. Nothing in them provides for filing the result.^⁠[6] The one register that will hold an English name is Hong Kong’s, as the registries section below explains. The English name is a choice, and a choice can drift. Three versions across a bank mandate, a contract and a licence translation give a compliance officer three companies to reconcile.

A Chinese name has four parts, in a fixed order: region, trade name, industry and legal form.^⁠[2] So 杭州 + trade name + 科技 + 有限公司 is usually rendered as the trade name, then “(Hangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd.”. For a foreign-owned company there is one fixed point. If its name contains “(China)” (（中国）), its trade name must match the foreign investor’s name or the translation of it (Order 82, Article 15).^⁠[6]

What is the unified social credit code (统一社会信用代码)?

It is the company’s 18-character national identifier, unique in China and unchanged for the company’s whole life, whatever else about it changes.^⁠[7] Company registration authorities began issuing it on 1 October 2015. Existing organisations were to switch by the end of 2017, and the hardest cases by the end of 2020.^⁠[7]

Position	What it is
1	Registration authority code
2	Category of organisation
3 to 8	Administrative division of the registration authority
9 to 17	Subject identifier: the organisation code (组织机构代码) used before the switch
18	Check character

Positions 9 to 17 answer a question banks ask. Say a Wenzhou joint venture signed a ten-year warehouse lease in March 2014, and in October 2026 a bank in Frankfurt asks why the number on the lease is not the one on the licence. The lease carries the nine-character organisation code. Today’s code holds the same nine characters at positions 9 to 17, so a translator’s note pointing to them settles it without a new certificate.

Who translates the licence, and can the notary attach it?

For most uses abroad the licence travels inside a notarial certificate. A Chinese notary office certifies that the copy conforms to the original.^⁠[8] A certificate for use abroad is written in Chinese, and a translation into the foreign language may be attached where needed and asked for (Notarial Procedure Rules, Article 43).^⁠[9] Ask at that stage.

The apostille then goes on the bound certificate, as the apostille guide for China sets out step by step. It vouches for the notary’s seal and signature, not for the English.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs advises that a document being apostilled should generally carry a translation into the language the destination country requires, confirmed with the receiving body first.^⁠[10] A recipient that insists on a translator in its own country will not take one bound in China, so that question comes before the notary appointment. Some recipients also limit the certificate’s age: the Ministry’s example is the Netherlands, at six months.^⁠[10]

Our Certified Chinese and English Translation service renders the licence with a statement of accuracy and our company seal, from US$45 a page. Document Notarisation & Apostille puts the notarial certificate and the apostille around it.

What do the UK and Hong Kong company registries ask for?

The two answer in opposite directions. Hong Kong takes Chinese as it is. The UK wants English and lets the company’s own officers certify it.

Registry	Documents in Chinese	Who certifies the translation
Companies House (UK)	The constitution and accounts of an overseas company may be in Chinese, with a certified translation into English	Certified to be a correct translation. The guidance says a director, the secretary or another listed officer authenticates it
Companies Registry (Hong Kong)	Accepted without translation. A certified translation into English or Chinese is needed only for documents in other languages	Does not arise for a Chinese-language document

The UK statute also decides what happens when the English and the Chinese differ. The company may not rely on the translation against anyone else, but anyone else may rely on it, unless the company shows they knew the original (Companies Act 2006, section 1107).^⁠[11] An error in the English binds the company and protects everyone dealing with it.

Hong Kong is the one place here where an English name can go on a register. A Chinese company needs no translation of its name there, because the name is already in Chinese. A certified translation is compulsory only when none of a company’s names is in Latin letters or in Chinese (Companies Ordinance, section 776(5)). Its application may still include a certified English translation of the Chinese name, and the Registrar then enters that translation in the Companies Register as a corporate name (section 777(2)).^⁠[15] That registered English name binds nothing in mainland China, but it gives banks and counterparties in Hong Kong one version to match.

Banks, auditors and foreign courts set their own requirements, and we found no country that publishes one national form for a Chinese licence. Registries in the US, the EU member states and Australia were not researched for this page. The questions worth asking any receiving office before ordering are listed in whether a translation certified abroad is accepted in China; they apply in either direction.

Does the translation go out of date when the company changes?

Everything on it can, except the code. A change to any item the licence records means handing in the paper original and duplicate with the application,^⁠[3] while the unified social credit code stays the same.^⁠[7] A translation made before a change of address, legal representative or scope describes a licence that no longer exists. Translate from the current licence and date the translation. The deadline for registering a change is in 7 things to do when changing a Chinese company’s registered details.

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