Count the times this site tells you to prefer something licensed and you reach thirty-five pages. A licensed agency for Tibet. A licensed hotel that can register you with the police. Licensed drivers who queue at the rank rather than touting in the terminal. A licensed refund store for the tax rebate. The word does a great deal of work here, and until now it has been an adjective rather than an object.
There is an object. The hygiene page already unpacked the third document on a Chinese wall; this is the fourth, and it is the one that comes before all the others.
Everything is a registered entity#
The instrument is the 中华人民共和国市场主体登记管理条例 (Zhōnghuá Rénmín Gònghéguó Shìchǎng Zhǔtǐ Dēngjì Guǎnlǐ Tiáolì, Regulations on the Administration of the Registration of Market Entities), State Council Order No. 746, promulgated on 27 July 2021 and in force since 1 March 2022. It has not been amended since.
Its Article 2 defines a 市场主体 (shìchǎng zhǔtǐ, market entity) as a natural person, legal person or unincorporated organisation carrying on business for profit in China, and lists the kinds: companies and non-company enterprise legal persons and their branches; sole proprietorships and partnerships and their branches; farmers' specialised cooperatives and their branches; 个体工商户 (gètǐ gōngshānghù, individual industrial and commercial households); branches of foreign companies; and others provided for by law.
That fourth category is the one that makes this page worth reading. The individual industrial and commercial household is the legal form of the noodle shop, the fruit stall, the barber with one chair. There is no tier of Chinese commerce below registration. A business either has a licence or is trading without one, and there is no third state.
It has to be where you can see it#
Article 36 is the provision, and it is the twelfth time this site has found a required credential hanging in plain sight:
市场主体应当将营业执照置于住所或者主要经营场所的醒目位置。
A market entity must place its business licence in a conspicuous position at its domicile or principal place of business.
The same article has a second sentence that matters more than it looks:
Market entities carrying on e-commerce must continuously publish the business licence information, or a link to it, in a prominent position on their home page.
That is the identical move the site met in a delivery app, where a caterer must keep its credentials and its real address on its listing. The wall and the home page are the same requirement, applied to whichever surface the customer actually looks at.
What is printed on it#
A Chinese business licence is a single sheet, usually framed, and it carries:
- the 统一社会信用代码 (tǒngyī shèhuì xìnyòng dàimǎ, unified social credit code) — an eighteen-character identifier for that specific entity;
- the name, the entity type, and the legal representative or, for a stall, the operator;
- the registered capital or contribution, and the date of establishment;
- the domicile or place of business;
- the business scope — what this entity is registered to do;
- the registration authority, and a QR code.
Two of those are worth a traveller's attention. The business scope states the activity the entity registered for, so a licence is a claim about what the place is as well as that it exists. And the code is the handle: it is how that business is identified in a complaint, on an invoice, and in the public record described below.
Article 22 adds that an electronic business licence has the same legal effect as the paper one, so a licence produced on a phone is not a lesser document.
Renting one is prohibited#
Article 37 is short and answers a question the site has raised without resolving it:
Nobody may forge, alter, lease, lend or transfer a business licence.
The failure mode this addresses is not a shop with no paperwork. It is a shop operating under somebody else's — a licence borrowed, rented or left hanging after the business behind it changed hands. That arrangement is not a grey area in Chinese law; it is expressly prohibited, and it is prohibited for both parties to it.
It is also the sharp end of the distinction the terracotta warriors page draws, where a licensed agency running an unlawful shopping stop owes you a refund while a seller on the forecourt has no licence to lose. The licence is what makes a counterparty findable afterwards.
The public record, rewritten in 2024#
The licence proves registration. A separate instrument publishes what happened next.
The 企业信息公示暂行条例 (qǐyè xìnxī gōngshì zànxíng tiáolì, Provisional Regulations on Enterprise Information Publicity) were issued as State Council Order No. 654 on 7 August 2014 and revised by the State Council decision of 10 March 2024 — Order No. 777, adopted at the 25th executive meeting on 2 February 2024 and in force since 1 May 2024.
Worth noting what that revision did, because it is the sort of thing that dates an English-language summary: it replaced the 工商行政管理部门 (gōngshāng xíngzhèng guǎnlǐ bùmén, industry and commerce administration departments) with the 市场监督管理部门 (shìchǎng jiāndū guǎnlǐ bùmén, market regulation departments) throughout, the former body having been folded into the latter. It also added a credit-repair regime.
Its Article 10 requires an enterprise to publish, through the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, within twenty working days of the information arising:
- shareholder capital contributions — amounts, timing and method;
- equity transfers and changes;
- administrative licences obtained, changed or renewed;
- intellectual-property pledge registrations;
- administrative penalties received;
- anything else the law requires to be published.
So the permits a business holds and the penalties it has taken are meant to be public, attached to the same code that is printed on the licence in front of you.
Registration is not permission#
The last distinction is the one that stops this page from being misread, and it is the same seam the site has met repeatedly.
The business licence says the entity exists and is registered. It does not say the entity may do a regulated thing. For that there is a second document, specific to the trade: the hygiene licence for a public place, a food business licence for a kitchen, an electronic card and worn badge for a tour guide, separate certificates for a ride-hailing car and its driver, a Special Trade Licence for a workshop that carves official seals.
A Chinese restaurant is carrying at least three pieces of paper for this reason, and they are not interchangeable. A licence on the wall with no permit beside it tells you the business is registered and nothing more.
In practice#
- Look for it before you commit money. It is required to be conspicuous, so needing to ask is itself an answer.
- Read the business scope, which is the line that says what the place is registered to do rather than what the sign says.
- Photograph the code if there is any prospect of a dispute. It identifies the business when the shop name does not.
- Online, look at the home page. An e-commerce seller must publish the licence or a link to it there, continuously.
- A borrowed licence is unlawful, not merely irregular — for the lender as much as the user.
- The licence is the floor, not the ceiling. Whatever the trade needs on top of it, that is a different document, and the difference is the whole point.
- A price dispute is separate again — the marked-price rules govern the gap between the sign and the bill, whoever holds the licence.
Frequently asked questions#
Do Chinese shops have to display a business licence?#
Yes. Under State Council Order No. 746, in force since 1 March 2022, a market entity must place its business licence in a conspicuous position at its domicile or principal place of business. Businesses trading online must continuously publish the licence information, or a link to it, in a prominent position on their home page.
What is the unified social credit code in China?#
An eighteen-character identifier printed on the business licence that identifies that specific registered entity. It is the handle used on invoices, in complaints and in the national enterprise credit publicity system, and it is more reliable than a shop name for identifying who you actually dealt with.
How can I check a Chinese business is legitimate?#
On the spot, look for the displayed business licence and read its business scope. Beyond that, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System holds the licences and administrative penalties a business must publish within twenty working days — though it is Chinese-language and better suited to a local checking on your behalf.
Does a street food stall in China need a licence?#
Yes. The individual industrial and commercial household is a registered market entity under the regulations, so the stall and the fruit seller are inside the system, not beneath it. Separate food and hygiene permits apply on top of registration.
Is it legal to borrow or rent a business licence in China?#
No. The regulations prohibit forging, altering, leasing, lending or transferring a business licence, and the prohibition binds both sides of such an arrangement. A business trading under someone else's licence is not in a grey area.
What is the difference between a business licence and a permit in China?#
The business licence records that the entity is registered and what it is registered to do. A permit authorises a specific regulated activity — running a public place, operating a kitchen, guiding a tour, driving for a platform. A lawful business in a regulated trade holds both, and one does not substitute for the other.