China Company Lookup: Published Penalties Stop Being Published

A China company lookup runs through the 国家企业信用信息公示系统, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, at gsxt.gov.cn, run by the 国家市场监督管理总局 — the State Administration for Market Regulation. Provincial market regulation bureaus operate the sub-sites and handle credit repair. This guide covers what the system publishes, and — the part that matters most for reading a record — how long it keeps publishing it. If you need the Chinese population rather than one company at a time, the China company directory covers the same registered enterprises with industry, size and contact breakdowns attached, and the China business database is the same file described as a dataset.

China company lookup: the short version

• The system's headline categories are 企业信用信息, 经营异常名录 and 严重违法失信名单, alongside 信息公告, 企业信息填报, 小微企业名录 and 使用帮助.
• Published administrative penalties stop being published. 信用修复 — credit repair — ends publication once obligations are met, or when the publicity period expires.
• A circulated criticism or a low-value fine carries a publicity period of three months, after which it is repaired automatically, with no application required.
• A penalty of licence downgrade, permit revocation, business licence revocation or ordered closure is published for three years and cannot be repaired early.

The publication has an end date, and the date depends on severity

Most registers in this series decide what to publish. This one publishes a decision and then, on a schedule, stops.

The mechanism is defined directly:

"是指对国家企业信用信息公示系统依法公示的行政处罚、严重违法失信名单等信息，在当事人履行相关义务、纠正失信行为，改善自身信用状况后提出申请，或者在公示期届满时，由市场监督管理部门停止公示相关信息，依法解除相关管理措施。"

This refers to information such as administrative penalties and the serious illegal and dishonest list, published in accordance with law on the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, where — after the party has performed the relevant obligations, corrected the dishonest conduct and improved its own credit situation, upon application, or when the publicity period expires — the market regulation department stops publishing the information and lifts the related administrative measures in accordance with law.

Two routes out, then: an application after remedy, or the simple expiry of the period.

Three months, automatic

"仅受到通报批评的行政处罚信息或者仅受到较低数额罚款的行政处罚信息【……】公示期为三个月，到期自动修复并停止公示，无需申请信用修复。"

Administrative penalty information involving only a circulated criticism, or only a low-value fine — a low-value fine being defined in the guidance by reference to the lighter or mitigated sentencing tier, with stated thresholds for business entities and for responsible individuals — has a publicity period of three months, and on expiry is automatically repaired and publication stops, with no application for credit repair required.

The guidance defines a low-value fine inside the bracket elided above, by reference to the lighter or mitigated sentencing tier and by stated fine thresholds for business entities and for responsible individuals. Those thresholds are amounts, so they are recorded in the Source Register with their source and appear nowhere in this prose — the bracket is elided from the quotation for that reason, and for no other.

Three years, no early exit

"当事人受到降低资质等级、吊销许可证件、吊销营业执照、责令关闭的行政处罚信息，公示期满三年的，由市场监督管理部门停止公示，不能提前信用修复。"

Where a party has received administrative penalty information of 降低资质等级 (downgrading of qualification level), 吊销许可证件 (revocation of permits or certificates), 吊销营业执照 (revocation of the business licence) or 责令关闭 (ordered closure), the market regulation department stops publishing when the publicity period reaches three years, and early credit repair is not available.

The reading rule

Here is what the two periods mean for anyone reading a Chinese company record, stated plainly and without insinuation:

The absence of a published penalty is not evidence that no penalty occurred, and the window in which one would have been visible depends on the severity of the penalty. Three months for a circulated criticism or a low-value fine; three years for a revocation or an ordered closure.

That is a fact about publication periods. It is not a claim about any company, and nothing on this page suggests otherwise. A record showing nothing may be a record that never had anything, or a record whose publicity period has run out — and the two are indistinguishable from the record alone.

Four registers in this series answer the question of what happens to the past in four different ways. The Denmark company lookup guide covers a register where addresses expire by statute five years after a person ceases to be active while names never expire. The Netherlands company lookup guide covers one where a shielded address stays visible in the company's history. The Poland company lookup guide covers one that offers deleted data inside the free full extract. China's penalty publication ends on a severity-based clock.

Four registers, four fates for the past. None is ranked and none is characterised as concealment — each is a published rule about how long a published thing stays published.

What a Chinese company register entry contains

A self-contained summary. China's enterprise registration and publicity system is the 国家企业信用信息公示系统, the National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, at gsxt.gov.cn, run by the 国家市场监督管理总局, the State Administration for Market Regulation, with provincial market regulation bureaus operating sub-sites and handling credit repair. The system's headline categories are 企业信用信息 (enterprise credit information), 经营异常名录 (the list of abnormal business operations) and 严重违法失信名单 (the serious illegal and dishonest list). It also carries 信息公告, 企业信息填报, 小微企业名录 and 使用帮助, with iOS and Android applications and WeChat and Alipay mini-programmes. The organiser is given as 国家市场监督管理总局, 北京市西城区三里河东路八号, 100820. Credit repair (信用修复) refers to information such as administrative penalties and the serious illegal and dishonest list published on the system, where upon application after the party has performed the relevant obligations, corrected the dishonest conduct and improved its credit situation, or upon expiry of the publicity period, the market regulation department stops publishing the information and lifts the related administrative measures in accordance with law. Administrative penalty information involving only a circulated criticism, or only a low-value fine as defined in the guidance, has a publicity period of three months and is automatically repaired and no longer published on expiry, with no application required. Administrative penalty information involving downgrading of qualification level, revocation of permits or certificates, revocation of the business licence, or ordered closure is no longer published when the publicity period reaches three years, and early credit repair is not available. Repair follows the principle 谁列入谁修复、谁处罚谁修复 and is submitted to the provincial credit repair system of the authority that made the decision; online repair offers several routes, including logging in with an electronic business licence. This summary does not describe what puts a company on either of the two lists, or what a search returns, because neither was established from the system's own pages on the date shown.

The two lists

The front page carries two named lists alongside general enterprise credit information, and both are searchable from it.

经营异常名录 — the list of abnormal business operations. 严重违法失信名单 — the serious illegal and dishonest list.

What puts a company on either is not described here, because it was not sourced. Both appear in the credit repair guidance as categories of published information subject to the repair mechanism, and that is the extent of what this page establishes about them.

The system also carries 信息公告 (information announcements), 企业信息填报 (enterprise information filing), 小微企业名录 (the directory of small and micro enterprises) and 使用帮助 (help), with iOS and Android applications and WeChat and Alipay mini-programmes. The organiser is given as 国家市场监督管理总局, at 北京市西城区三里河东路八号, 100820.

National system, provincial remedy

One procedural principle explains a structure that otherwise looks inconsistent:

谁列入谁修复、谁处罚谁修复 — whoever listed it repairs it, whoever penalised it repairs it.

Repair is submitted to the provincial credit repair system of the authority that made the decision. Online repair offers several routes, including logging in with an electronic business licence.

So the publicity is national and the remedy is local. A party seeking repair does not approach the national system; they approach the authority whose decision put the information there, through that authority's province.

Where a China lookup stops

This page describes no field of a search result. Nothing read here enumerates what the system returns for a given enterprise, and a field list assembled from elsewhere would read better and be worth less.

It also does not state any query limit. CHINA_REPORT.md flags that first — a hard cap on results would be a fact of the kind Lithuania, Estonia and Norway state officially in this series, and it belongs on the page once it can be sourced from the system's own help pages.

Where the question is a population rather than a company, a firmographic directory covers the same registered enterprises with classification, size and contact data attached and queryable as a set; the Asia company directory breaks the regional file down by market.

Data quality pitfalls to avoid in China

Reading an empty penalty field as an absence of penalties. Publication ends on a schedule, so a clean record may be a record whose publicity period expired.

Applying one window to all penalties. Three months for a circulated criticism or a low-value fine; three years for a qualification downgrade, a permit or licence revocation, or an ordered closure.

Expecting an application for every repair. The three-month category is repaired automatically on expiry, with no application required.

Expecting early repair for the serious categories. Those four penalty types cannot be repaired before the three-year period runs.

Approaching the national system for a remedy. Repair follows 谁列入谁修复、谁处罚谁修复 and goes to the provincial system of the deciding authority.

Assuming what the two lists mean. What puts a company on 经营异常名录 or 严重违法失信名单 is not established here.

A repeatable China company lookup workflow

1. Record the date of every observation, because what is visible is time-bounded.
2. Treat an absent penalty as undetermined rather than as none.
3. Note which penalty category any finding falls into, because the window differs by severity.
4. Re-check a record after a known publicity period rather than assuming stability.
5. Direct any repair question to the deciding authority's provincial system.
6. Verify independently what a search returns, because this page does not establish it.

Frequently asked questions

Do published penalties stay on a Chinese company's record?

No. Credit repair ends publication either on application after the party has performed its obligations and corrected the conduct, or on expiry of the publicity period.

How long is the publicity period?

Three months for administrative penalty information involving only a circulated criticism or only a low-value fine as defined in the guidance. Three years for downgrading of qualification level, revocation of permits or certificates, revocation of the business licence, or ordered closure.

Does the short period need an application?

No. On expiry it is automatically repaired and publication stops, with no application for credit repair required.

Can a serious penalty be repaired early?

No. For those four categories, publication stops when the period reaches three years and early credit repair is not available.

So can I rely on a clean record?

Only as far as the publicity periods allow. The absence of a published penalty is not evidence that none occurred — that is a statement about publication periods, not about any company.

Where do I apply for repair?

To the provincial credit repair system of the authority that made the decision, following the principle that whoever listed or penalised is who repairs.

What are the two lists?

经营异常名录, the list of abnormal business operations, and 严重违法失信名单, the serious illegal and dishonest list. What places a company on either is not described here.

Source Register

Every Chinese passage above is reproduced in simplified characters as the sources write them, read on the date shown, with an English gloss beside it rather than in place of it. No amount appears anywhere in this page's prose, including the fine thresholds that the guidance states in its bracketed definition of a low-value fine; the prose says "a low-value fine as defined in the guidance" and the figures sit in the Source Register row with their source.

This page describes what the market regulator publishes and the procedure for ending that publication, and nothing else. It does not describe what a search returns, what places a company on either list, or any query limit; CHINA_REPORT.md records each.

The readings that are InfobelPRO's rather than the regulator's: that a record showing nothing may be a record that never had anything or one whose publicity period has run out, and that the two are indistinguishable from the record alone; and that the publicity being national while the remedy is provincial follows from the stated repair principle. Those are ours. The comparison with Denmark, the Netherlands and Poland sets out four published rules about how long a published thing stays published, offered without ranking and without characterising any of them as concealment.