Five supplier documents China stopped issuing
Most supplier due-diligence checklists in English still ask for documents that no Chinese authority has issued for between three and eleven years. Here is each one, the reform that ended it, and what to ask for in its place.
Direct answer: Six documents commonly requested from Chinese suppliers are no longer issued. The organisation code and tax registration certificates were folded into the business licence on 1 October 2015; social insurance and statistics registration followed on 1 October 2016; the bank account opening permit was abolished across 2019; and foreign trade operator registration ended on 30 December 2022. Ask for the business licence and the 18-character Unified Social Credit Code instead.
Why a dead document is a live problem
Asking a supplier for a certificate that stopped existing in 2016 has three costs, and only the first is obvious.
- You learn nothing. The document either does not arrive, or arrives as a scan of something that lapsed years ago.
- You teach the supplier what you don’t know. A checklist full of superseded paperwork tells the other side, in the first email, that nobody on your team reads the Chinese system. That changes how you are treated for the rest of the relationship.
- You create a hole for a forgery. This is the real risk. A document nobody issues any more is a document nobody can check. If you ask for an organisation code certificate, you have asked for a piece of paper whose only remaining function is to satisfy you — and there is no authority left to contradict it.
None of the reforms below were secret. Each was published, each had a transition period, and each is still being ignored by English-language sourcing guides written after it happened.
1–2. Organisation code certificate and tax registration certificate
组织机构代码证 and 税务登记证. Ended by the reform known as 三证合一 — “three certificates in one, one licence one code” — which took effect on 1 October 2015. The business licence, the organisation code certificate and the tax registration certificate became a single licence carrying a single Unified Social Credit Code.
A company holding a licence issued under that reform is not required to produce either certificate to anyone, for any purpose. If a supplier sends you one, it is a pre-2015 document.
3–4. Social insurance and statistics registration certificates
社会保险登记证 and 统计登记证. Folded into the same licence a year later by 五证合一, rolled out nationwide from 1 October 2016. From that date the market regulator issued one licence bearing the unified code, and the two registration certificates were no longer issued separately.
The date that settles it: 1 January 2018. Old certificates stayed valid through a transition period that ended then. After that date, only a business licence bearing the unified code is a valid credential. Anything else is a historical record — which is a perfectly reasonable thing to keep, and not a thing to verify a supplier with.
5. The bank account opening permit
开户许可证, the document a great many payment-fraud checklists still name as the way to confirm a supplier’s bank account. The People’s Bank of China abolished it by Order [2019] No. 1. Cancellation was phased from 25 February 2019 and completed nationwide within that year.
What changed underneath is worth understanding, because it explains the replacement. Opening a basic or temporary deposit account moved from an approval system (核准制) to a filing system (备案制). The PBOC no longer approves the account, so it no longer issues a permit for one. The bank verifies the company and opens the account, and the company receives 基本存款账户信息 — a Basic Deposit Account Information sheet — which carries the same weight the permit did and is accepted for tax, tender and government purposes in its place.
So the check still exists; the document changed hands. It is now issued by the bank rather than the central bank, and it is what you should be asking for.
6. Foreign trade operator registration
对外贸易经营者备案登记表. On 30 December 2022 the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress amended the Foreign Trade Law and deleted the registration requirement from Article 9. Local commerce departments stopped processing registrations that day, and other authorities stopped requiring the registration form as supporting material for import and export licences, technology contract registrations and quotas.
This one had a long runway: the requirement had already been suspended inside the free trade zones from October 2019, and the nationwide abolition followed that pilot. It has now been gone for more than three years, and it is still on checklists.
And the 15-digit registration number
Not a certificate, but the same category of error. The old 15-digit business registration number (注册号) was replaced by the 18-character Unified Social Credit Code under the same 2015 reform. A 15-digit number on a document is a marker of a pre-2015 record, and it will not resolve on the registry. If you are given one, ask for the current 18-character code — every company has one, and it is on the licence.
What to ask for instead
| Still on your checklist | Ended | Ask for this instead |
|---|---|---|
| 组织机构代码证 — organisation code certificate | 1 Oct 2015 | Business licence + 18-character Unified Social Credit Code |
| 税务登记证 — tax registration certificate | 1 Oct 2015 | The same licence — the code is also the tax number |
| 社会保险登记证 — social insurance registration | 1 Oct 2016 | The same licence; headcount from the registry’s annual report |
| 统计登记证 — statistics registration | 1 Oct 2016 | The same licence |
| 开户许可证 — bank account opening permit | 2019 | 基本存款账户信息 — Basic Deposit Account Information sheet, from the bank |
| 对外贸易经营者备案登记表 — foreign trade operator registration | 30 Dec 2022 | Customs registration, which an exporter still needs |
| 15-digit 注册号 — old registration number | 1 Oct 2015 | The 18-character Unified Social Credit Code |
The pattern is not a coincidence. China spent a decade collapsing separate certificates into one licence and one code, precisely so that one lookup answers what five documents used to. The short checklist is the current one.
Quick FAQ
My supplier sent me an organisation code certificate. Is it fake?
Not necessarily — it may be a genuine document that expired as a legal instrument. Organisation code certificates stopped being issued on 1 October 2015 and stopped being valid on 1 January 2018. A company registered before 2015 will still have the paper in a drawer. What matters is that it proves nothing today: ask for the business licence and the 18-character Unified Social Credit Code instead.
What replaced the bank account opening permit (开户许可证)?
A document called 基本存款账户信息 — the Basic Deposit Account Information sheet, issued by the bank rather than by the People’s Bank of China. Enterprise account opening moved from an approval system to a filing system across 2019, and the PBOC stopped issuing opening permits. The information sheet carries the same weight the permit used to.
Does a supplier still need foreign trade operator registration to export?
No. The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress amended the Foreign Trade Law on 30 December 2022 and deleted the registration requirement from Article 9. Local commerce departments stopped processing it on that date, and other authorities stopped asking for it as supporting material. Customs registration is the filing that still matters for an exporter.
Want the current documents checked against the registry?
We read the company’s record on China’s national registry and tell you, per company, whether what you have been sent matches what the state holds.
Sources
- Notice on implementing the “three certificates in one, one licence one code” registration reform — effective 1 October 2015 (retrieved 31 August 2026)
- State Council — from “three in one” to “five in one” (retrieved 31 August 2026)
- Beijing Municipal Government — “five certificates in one” rolled out nationwide from 1 October 2016, old certificates invalid after 1 January 2018 (retrieved 31 August 2026)
- State Council Gazette — PBOC Order [2019] No. 1, Decision on Cancelling Enterprise Bank Account Licensing (retrieved 31 August 2026)
- PBOC — Notice on Cancelling Enterprise Bank Account Licensing, phased from 25 February 2019 and completed nationwide within that year (retrieved 31 August 2026)
- MOFCOM Foreign Trade Department — briefing on the abolition of foreign trade operator registration, 30 December 2022 (retrieved 31 August 2026)
- National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System — the registry that replaced all of them
This guide is general information, not legal advice. Requirements vary by city, document and personal circumstances — confirm your specific case before acting. Last checked 31 August 2026.