The four things worth verifying
1. Does the company exist as it claims
Chinese companies carry a business licence with a registered name, a registration number, a scope of business and a registered address. The name on the licence is the Chinese legal name, not the trading name on the website. If the licence cannot be produced, or the scope of business has nothing to do with what they are selling you, that is your answer already.
2. Factory or trading company
Both are legitimate, and a good trading company can be easier to deal with on a small order. The problem is only when a trader tells you they are the factory, because then you cannot tell who controls quality, lead time or the price you are paying above. A visit, a video call from the production floor, or a straight question asked in Chinese usually settles it in minutes.
3. Do they actually make what you are buying
A supplier who makes kettles and lists solar inverters is reselling somebody else's inverters. Fine if you know it, dangerous if you do not, because they cannot answer a technical question or fix a fault in production.
4. The person you are talking to
Is the WeChat or WhatsApp account connected to the company, or to an individual who could disappear? Are they asking you to pay a personal account, or a company account in the licence name? Payment to a personal account is the single most common pattern in stories that end badly.
What a ChinaBridge check includes
Our Guangzhou team does this in Chinese, which is the part that cannot be replicated from Nigeria. Depending on the size of the order, a check can cover the business licence and registration details, the registered address and whether it is a factory or an office, the product line against what they are quoting you, a video call from the premises, a physical visit, production capability, and a sample verified against what you were promised.
You get a written report with what we found, what we could not confirm, and a plain recommendation. The unconfirmed part matters as much as the rest; a report that finds everything perfect every time is not a report, it is a sales document.
What checking cannot tell you
Honesty about the limits is part of the service. A check confirms who a company is and what they can do. It cannot promise that production in three months will match a sample today, that they will not subcontract when they get busy, or that a good supplier stays good after a change of ownership. That is why inspection before shipping exists as a separate step, and why a first order should be small even with a supplier who checks out perfectly.
What it costs
There is no fixed price, because a video call and a document check is a different job from sending someone to a factory two hours outside Guangzhou. We agree the scope and the fee with you in writing before any work starts, and nothing is payable until you have said yes to a figure. As a rule of thumb, checking costs a small fraction of the deposit you were about to send, which is the whole argument for doing it.
How to do a basic check yourself, free
Ask for the business licence and put the Chinese company name into a search engine. Ask for a live video call and request they walk to the production line rather than sitting in an office. Ask a technical question only a maker would answer, about materials, tolerances or a production step. Ask for the company bank account details and refuse a personal account. Ask for the address and look at it on a map; an industrial park is a different story from a residential tower.
None of that is conclusive, and all of it is better than nothing. When the order is large enough that a mistake would hurt, have someone on the ground look properly.
The order that protects you
Check the company. Agree the specification in writing, including packaging and the exact material. Approve a sample. Place a small first order. Inspect before shipping. Pay the balance after inspection, not before. Every step you skip is a step you are trusting a stranger to have done for you.
Start here, it takes two minutes
Tell us three things and a person from the desk replies on WhatsApp, usually the same working day. Nothing is payable to register, and nothing is due until you have agreed a plan in writing.