Business Scope
经营范围
In short
The business scope is the field on a Chinese business licence that lists what the entity is legally permitted to do. It is the single most useful field for separating a factory from a trader: manufacturing entities carry wording such as 生产, 制造 or 加工, while trading entities carry 销售, 批发 or 零售. It is a legal permission, not proof of activity.
What it proves
- Whether manufacturing is legally within the entity's permitted activities
- Whether the entity is registered as wholesale, retail, or production
- Whether the product category you are buying is covered at all
What it does not prove
- That manufacturing actually takes place at this address
- That the entity holds the sector-specific production licence required for your goods
- That the entity is not simply a trading arm of a related factory
Chinese business scopes follow a standard vocabulary, which makes them unusually readable. A manufacturing company typically includes a phrase ending in 生产 (production), 制造 (manufacture) or 加工 (processing) attached to a material or product category. A trading company typically includes 销售 (sales), 批发 (wholesale) or 零售 (retail), and often 进出口 (import and export) as well.
This is why the field is so useful. The question every buyer eventually asks — “are you a factory or a trading company?” — is answered in writing, by the registry, on a document the supplier is legally required to display.
It is also why the field is so often misread. A scope that includes manufacturing means the entity may legally manufacture. It does not mean the entity does manufacture, at this address, at this moment, for your product. The permission and the plant are two different facts.
There is one further trap worth knowing. Many groups register two entities: a manufacturing company and a trading company, often at the same site and often with overlapping directors. The sales team may quote through the trading entity while production sits in the manufacturing entity next door. That arrangement is legitimate and extremely common. It becomes a problem only when the trading entity is presented to you as the factory, because the liability, the certifications and the actual capacity all live on the other side of the wall.
For regulated goods — food, cosmetics, medical devices, certain electrical products — the scope is only the first gate. The sector-specific production licence is the second, and the scope alone will not tell you whether that exists.
Last checked 2026-10
A document tells you what is claimed.
A visit tells you what is there.